Deer life cycle

 Deer a beautiful animal

Deer life cycle

Deer live on all continents of the world. There are many different species. Deer  are in 43 species .Deer have several other distinguishing characteristics. All deer lack the gall bladder. Females have four teats. Deer may have scent glands on their legs. The growing antlers are encased in “velvet,” a highly vascularized, nerve-filled skin covered by short, soft hairs. 

 Deer are herbivores; they only eat vegetation. For the most part, a deer's diet consists of grass, small shrubs and leaves, though they will forage in trash bins and in gardens if they cannot find the vegetation they need elsewhere. Deer have one main stomach and three "false stomachs.".

 The deer birth process follows that of most mammals. Deer Hoofed ruminant mammal with long and powerful legs, a diminutive tail and long ears. The young develop in the womb rather than in eggs and suckle milk from their mothers when young. Females  usually live their entire lives in the same herd, mating with the  male each year. In captivity deer have been known to reach 30 years of age. Mostly found in all sountries except Australia and Antarctica. Dense  in forests and planted areas. Life span is 10 to 20 years.

Female deer generally give birth away from the herd. They will select an area of dense vegetation so that the fawn is hidden from predators. The mother will lick the fawn clean of birth fluid, the newborn can stand within 20 minutes of birth. The first week of DEER BABY  life it does left hidden in vegetation while its mother feeds it. The female returns regularly to suckle the fawn. After a week or so, when it is strong enough, the fawn(BABY DEER)  joins the herd. Females occasionally have twins. The fawn will stay with its mother for approximately one year, suckling for three to four months. The fawn is born with its fur speckled with white spots. This helps  them in the vegetation.

In the wild deer can live up to 20 years. However, few will reach that age as older animals.   Many fawns will also be killed by predators and hunters. 

In the wild, the majority of deer don’t make it to that age because of disease, hunting and automobile collisions. The average life span for wild whitetail deer is 4½ years. The lifespan of a Deer averages between 12 and 25 Years. 

Red deer

The red deer  is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer is the fourth-largest extant deer species, behind the moose, elk, and sambar deer. It is a ruminant, eating its food in two stages and having an even number of toes on each hoof, like camels, goats, and cattle. 

These deer are large and charismatic-looking animals. They have a number of unique and helpful adaptations that help them compete and survive. Like most deer, red deer live primarily in forests and along forest edges. Some of their common habitats include grasslands, meadows, moors, and woodlands.

 In many areas, these deer also adapt to life in farmland and semi-urban parks. These deer are herbivores, which means they eat plants. This species  eat a variety of different plants and plant parts, from stems to leaves, grasses, buds, and more. 

Some of their favorite species of plants are red maple, dandelions, eastern hemlock, aster, clover, staghorn, cedar, and more. Humans have not domesticated red deer in any way. Overall, they are wild animals, and would make poor pets.

Most of the year, these deer live in small groups called herds. Herds are usually all-male or all-female outside of the breeding season. They spend much of their time foraging for food, and all of the members of the herd listen for potential threats.

Size

The male (stag) red deer is typically 175 to 250 cm  long and weighs 160 to 240 kg.  the female (hind) is 160 to 210 cm    long and weighs 120 to 170 kg . The tail adds another 12 to 19 cm  and shoulder height is about 95 to 130 cm.

Breeding

Once female deer are 2 years old, they begin to reproduce. The gestation period has some variation, and is usually between 240 and 262 days long. They give birth to a single baby, called a “calf,” which is born with spots, which fade as they get older.

Roe deer

 The roe is a small deer, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapted to cold environments. Roe deer are most closely related to the water deer, and, counter-intuitively, the three species in this group, called the Capreolini, are most closely related to moose and reindeer. this deer was originally simply called a 'roe', but over time the word 'roe' has become a qualifier, and it is now usually called 'roe deer'.

 This species can utilize a large number of habitats, including open agricultural areas and above the tree line, but a requisite factor is access to food and cover. It retreats to dense woodland. A roe deer can live up to 20 years, but it usually does not reach such an age. A normal life span in the wild is seven to eight years.

The roe deer is a game animal of great economic value. It is thought that during the Middle Ages the two species of roe deer were kept apart due to hunting pressure and an abundance of predators. The roe deer prefers areas with small snow coverage for its winter habitat. From under thin snow it can more easily reach for the brushwood for nutrition. In winters with heavy snow loads, the roe deer feeds also on twigs and needles. Some roe deer stay wintering close to housing areas. 

size

The roe deer is a relatively small deer, with a body length of 95–135 cm  throughout its range, and a shoulder height of 63–67 cm  and a weight of 15–35 kg.

White-tailed deer

The white-tailed deer , also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer. White-tailed deer are the smallest members of the North American deer family. Adult white-tail deer have reddish-brown coats in summer. The color fades to a duller grayish-brown in winter. Male deer, called bucks, and female deer is called a doe. The young one is called a fawn.  

 Most white-tailed deer live about 2 to 3 years. The maximum life span in the wild is 20 years, but few deer live past 10 years old. The white-tailed deer is tan or brown in the summer and grayish brown in winter. It has white on its throat, around its eyes and nose,  on its stomach and on the underside of its tail. The white-tailed deer is an herbivore or plant eater. It follows well-used trails to its feeding areas. It feeds in the early morning hours and in the late afternoon. 

   A deer's diet changes depending on its habitat and the season. Its stomach has four chambers for digesting food. In the first two chambers, the rumen and the reticulum, food is mixed with bile to form the cud. The cud is regurgitated and re-chewed and swallowed. The white-tailed deer lives in wooded areas. In some areas, deer overpopulation is a problem. Gray wolves and mountain lions used to be predators of the white-tailed deer and helped keep their population under control.

 If deer have enough food, water and shelter, their population can grow very quickly. sometimes grow too large for their environment and deer can starve to death. Disease and parasites like lice, mites and roundworms can weaken or kill deer. Young deer and old deer often get sick and die, especially in the winter. White-tailed deer are very good runners. They can run at speeds of up to 30 mile an hour. They are also good leapers and swimmers. 

weight

Males weigh between 150 and 300 pounds and females weigh between 90 and 200 pounds.

Breeding

 White-tailed deer mate in November  and in January or February . The female has one to three fawns after about six months after mating. Fawns are reddish-brown at birth with white spots that help camouflage them. They can walk at birth and forage for food a couple of days later. 

The mother leaves her fawns well-hidden for hours at a time while she feeds. If she has more than one fawn, she hides them in separate places. Female fawns may stay with their mother for two years, males usually leave after a year. 

Sika Deer

Sika are native to SE China, including Taiwan, Korea and Japan. Sika typically live in small herds of 6-7 animals. Medium-sized deer. Usually has distinctive ‘furrowed brow’ look. Nearly always seen moving together in herds. Males have rounded antlers. These deer have a diet of grasses, heather, sedges and occasionally tree bark and shoots. Sika deer don’t have a set of incisors at the top of their mouths; instead, they have a hard pad which works to tear through grass and vegetation.

 

Sika has a heart-shaped white rump with black upper border, with a white tail that has a thin black vertical streak. Red/brown colour in summer, grey/brown in winter and no spots. Sika has spots in summer and is larger than roe. Roe has distinctive black nose and white chin. Although they are called deer, sika deer are actually a member of the elk family. They are also called sika elk or Asian elk. Males are called “stags” and females are called “hinds” or “cows.

Breeding

The breeding season for sika deer usually takes place from early September to November. Males will often be heard making high-pitched noises or seen fighting with each other to help them secure a mate. Calves are normally born in May or June and will normally reach independence after around 10 to 12 months.

 Calves are born in May-June, after a gestation of 220 days. They are weaned by the time of the next rut, and the does usually first breed as yearlings. In the absence of their own females, sika bucks may mate instead with young hinds of the closely related red deer. The consequence is an increasingly hybrid population, neither red nor sika. Sika bucks are too small to rival red stags, but the hybrids are able to breed in either direction.