Caught on camera - bucks and does

Nature

16 Jun

Elusive and wary, with coats that blend into dappled shade, deer run through our collective imagination and folklore. Catching a glimpse of them is magical, and as we return to Fingle, this year’s young are being born.We’ve hunted native roe and red deer since the Mesolithic (6,000 -10,000BC) and their journey from essential food to prestigious meat lingers in their names. In Old English they were déor - wild animal, while doe comes from dá - mother. By the Norman period, hunting and eating them was the privilege of the rich, and the name venison, comes from the French (originally Latin) verb venari - to hunt. By about 1300 the names change, and while male red deer became stags, the roe and fallow became bucks, a name used for animals that were hunted.

The solitary roe and the social fallow

Solitary during the summer, when their reddish-brown coats make them hard to see, roe live in overlapping home ranges. It’s only in winter that they live in small groups and by then, their coats will have turned dark grey enabling them to remain camouflaged among the trees.Social fallow deer were introduced by the Normans as exotic animals and their distinctive tawny and white-spotted coats must have marked them out in deer parks like the Medieval one at Okehampton Castle or the Tudor one at Whiddon (near Chagford). Living in small single sex herds they can often be seen in clearings because while like roe, they eat young trees and shrubs, they prefer to eat grasses. Unlike roe, their hides don’t change colour with the season, but you can also find groups of menil (pale with spots), melanistic (black or chocolate) and white deer.[gallery type="slideshow" size="large" ids="3315,8452,8461,8466"]

The seasonal rut

The bucks’ loud roars and posturing is an impressive power statement that can lead to fights and injuries as they claim and maintain exclusive territories around does. Even the name rut comes from the Middle English rutte – to roar. While we’ve been in lock down roe bucks have shed the velvet from their antlers, built up their stamina on the abundant supply of food, and are now in peak condition for their rut (mid-July to the end of August). Coming full circle, they’ll shed their antlers in October and next year’s set will start growing in November.Shortly after the summer rut finishes, the autumn one begins, and between late September and November, it will be the fallow bucks turn to roar, posture and lock antlers to gain the right to mate.[gallery type="slideshow" size="large" ids="8453,8468"]

Kids and fawns

Roe are the only hoofed animal with seasonal delayed implantation, an adaptation which means they delay the growth of the embryos for up to four months. So, when the kids (normally twins) are born between mid-May and mid-June, the abundant food supply ensures the doe can produce enough milk. Fallow deer give birth a bit later in June and July and normally have a single fawn.Their journey to adulthood is different. Both will be left hidden in undergrowth while the does go to eat, instinct telling them to remain silent, and their dappled coats providing the camouflage. After six weeks the dappling on the roe kids’ coats will fade and they will join their mother in her home range. As they mature, young females will establish ranges close to their mothers, while young males will go further afield. Fallow fawns can take their first steps when they are 30 minutes old, but it will be three to four weeks before they join their mother in the small herd of does and fawns.[gallery type="slideshow" size="large" ids="8469,8414,8400"]

What to listen and look out for

Walking through Fingle, you’ll be more likely to hear than see the deer. Listen out for short barks which mean they’re alarmed. In July you might hear the high-pitched whistling of young roe when they can’t find their mothers. These calls will be joined by the wilder sounds of the rut as bucks respond to the does’ high-pitched piping with deep rasping calls. You may see roe rings – bare circles or figures of eight where they’ve chased each other around tree trunks, or frayed trees where they’ve rubbed their antlers. But bucks are wild animals and should be avoided during the rut.Caught on camera in Fingle - a roe doe, a roe buck and a male fallow deer.[video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://finglewoods.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Roe-doe-roe-buck-and-fallow-deer.mp4" loop="true" autoplay="true"][/video]

Essential and symbolic

Difficult to see and harder to hunt, excavations show roe (and red) deer were a valuable source of food, clothing, and tools. Archaeological finds include digging tools and spearheads, as well as offerings at ceremonial sites. Most intriguing is a pair of drilled antlers designed as a headdress that may have either been a shamanic way of summoning the power of the deer, or aiding success in the hunt.Perhaps the people who lived at Wooston Castle believed in Cernunnos the god of plenty and wild animals, who is shown wearing antlers as the ‘Horned One’. Or perhaps they shared the Celtic beliefs that wise and magical deer move between the worlds of the living and the spirits, if so they would have believed that the recent sights of pale deer in the woods meant a sacred law had been broken. By Jane HallidayYou can find out more about roe and fallow deer in the following publication and websites.