Deer

Deer

Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Artiodactyla
Suborder:Ruminantia
Family:Cervidae
Genera

About 15 in 4 subfamilies.

Defined strictly, a deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. A number of broadly similar animals, from related families within the order Artiodactyla, are often also called deer.

Depending on the species, male deer are called stags, harts, bucks or bulls, and females are called hinds, does or cows. Young deer are called fawns or calves. Hart is an expression for a stag, particularly a Red Deer stag past its fifth year. It is not commonly used, but an example is in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" when Tybalt refers to the brawling Montagues and Capulets as hartless hinds. "The White Hart" and "The Red Hart" are common English pub names.

Deer are widely distributed, with representatives in all continents except Australia and Africa. Australia does have six introduced species of deer that have established sustainable wild populations from Acclimatisation Society releases in the 19th Century. These are Fallow Deer, Red Deer, Sambar Deer, Hog Deer, Rusa Deer, and Chital Deer[1] (http://rubens.anu.edu.au/student.projects/rabbits/wildanim.html). Although exotic to the continent, environmental factors restrict their ranges to habitable patches, thereby preventing any one species from becoming a serious pest. Red deer introduced into New Zealand in early 1900s (a gift from United States President Theodore Roosevelt) have been largely domesticated since the late 1960s and are common farm animals there now.

Deer differ from other ruminants in that they have antlers instead of horns. Antlers are bony growths that develop each year (usually in summer) and, in general, it is only male deer that develop them (although there are exceptions).

There are about 43 species of deer worldwide, divided into two broad groups: the old world group includes the subfamilies Muntiacinae and Cervinae; the new world deer the subfamilies Hydropotinae and Capreolinae. Note that the terms indicate the origin of the groups, not their modern distribution: the Water Deer, for example, is a new world species but is found only in China and Korea.

It is thought that the new world group evolved about 5 million years ago in the forests of North America and Siberia, the old world deer in Asia.

Deer are selective feeders. They have small, unspecialised stomachs by herbivore standards, and high nutrition requirements: ingesting sufficient minerals to grow a new pair of antlers every year is a significant task. Rather than attempt to digest vast quantities of low-grade, fibrous food as, for example, sheep and cattle do, deer select easily digestible shoots, young leaves, fresh grasses, soft twigs, fruit, fungi, and lichens.

Deer have long had economic significance to humans. While they are generally not as easily domesticated as sheep, goats, pigs, and even cattle, the association between people and deer is very old. Deer meat, for which they are hunted and farmed, is called venison.

Fawn
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Fawn
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Deer_running.jpg
Deer running
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White-tailed_deer.jpg
White-tailed Deer
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Nature_and_Appearance_of_Deer_and_how_they_can_be_hunted_with_Dogs_Fac_simile_of_a_Miniature_in_the_Livre_du_Roy_Modus_Manuscript_of_the_Fourteenth_Century_National_Library_of_Paris.png
"Nature and Appearance of Deer, and how they can be hunted with Dogs," taken from "Livre du Roy Modus," created in the 14th Century

SUBORDER RUMINANTIA

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