Belgium[edit]

In Flanders the deer was mostly confined to the hilly regions in the east, but like in neighbouring
countries the population has expanded in recent times. A theory is that the expansion
of maize cultivation, which are higher than traditional crops and afford more shelter, has aided their
expansion to the west.[34]

Britain[edit]
In England and Wales roe have experienced a substantial expansion in their range in the latter half
of the 20th century and continuing into the 21st century.[35] This increase in population also appears
to be affecting woodland ecosystems.[36] At the start of the 20th century, they were almost extirpated
in Southern England, but since then have hugely expanded their range, mostly due to restrictions
and decrease in hunting, increases in forests and reductions in arable farming, changes in
agriculture (more winter cereal crops), a massive reduction in extensive livestock husbandry, and a
general warming climate over the past 200 years. Furthermore, there are no large predators in
Britain.[37][38] In some cases roe have been introduced with human help. In 1884 roe were introduced
from Württemberg in Germany into the Thetford Forest, and these spread to populate most of
Norfolk, Suffolk, and substantial parts of Cambridgeshire. In southern England, they started their
expansion in Sussex (possibly from enclosed stock in Petworth Park) and from there soon spread
into Surrey, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Dorset, and for the first half of the 20th century,
most roe in southern England were to be found in these counties. By the end of the 20th century,
they had repopulated much of southern England and had expanded into Somerset, Devon, Cornwall,
Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire, and had even spread
into Wales from the Ludlow area where an isolated population had appeared. At the same time the
surviving population in Scotland and the Lake District had pushed further south beyond Yorkshire
and Lancashire and into Derbyshire and Humberside.[39]
In the 1970s the species was still completely absent from Wales.[36] Roe can now be found in most of
rural England except for south-east Kent and parts of Wales, anywhere in the UK mainland suitable
for roe may have a population.[36] Not being a species that needs large areas of woodland to survive,
urban roe are now a feature of several cities, notably Glasgow and Bristol, where in particular they
favour cemeteries.[citation needed] In Wales, they are the least common, but they are reasonably well
established in Powys and Monmouthshire.[36]

Iran[edit]
Roe deer are found in northern Iran in the Caspian region: they occur in the Hyrcanian
woodlands and agricultural lands of the Alborz Mountains (Golestan National Park, Jahan Nama
Protected Area).[40][41]

Ireland[edit]
Scottish roe deer were introduced to the Lissadell Estate in County Sligo in Ireland around 1870 by
Sir Henry Gore-Booth.[42] The Lissadell deer were noted for their occasional abnormal antlers and
survived in that general area for about 50 years before they died out. According to the National
Biodiversity Data Centre, in 2014 there was a confirmed sighting of roe deer in County Armagh.
There have been other, unconfirmed, sightings in County Wicklow.[43][44]

The Netherlands[edit]
In the Netherlands roe deer were extirpated from the entirety of the country except for a two small
areas around 1875. As new forests were planted in the country in the 20th century, the population
began to expand rapidly. Although it was a protected species in 1950, the population is no longer
considered threatened and it has lost legal protection. As of 2016 there are some 110,000 deer in
the country. The population is primarily kept in check through the efforts of hunters.[45]
Ecology[edit]

Ultrasonography of the uterine pregnancy of a roe deer in Bulgaria

Habitat[edit]
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, especially
among conifers, or bramble scrub when it must rest, but it is very opportunistic and a hedgerow may
be good enough. Deer in the southern Czech Republic live in almost completely open agricultural
land.[31] The animal is more likely to be spotted in places with nearby forests to retreat to.[46] A pioneer
species commonly associated with biotic communities at an early stage of succession, during
the Neolithic period in Europe when farming humans began to colonise the continent from the Middle
East, the roe deer was abundant, taking advantage of areas of forest or woodland cleared by
Neolithic farmers.[47]

Behaviour[edit]
In order to mitigate risk, roe deer remain within refuge habitats (such as forests) during the day.
They are likelier to venture into more open habitats at night and during crepuscular periods when
there is less ambient activity.[46] It scrapes leaf litter off the ground to make a 'bed'.[31]
When alarmed it will bark a sound much like a dog and flash out its white rump patch. Rump patches
differ between the sexes, with the white rump patches heart-shaped on females and kidney-shaped
on males. Males may also bark or make a low grunting noise. Does (the females) make a high-
pitched "pheep" whine to attract males during the rut (breeding season) in July and August. Initially
the female goes looking for a mate and commonly lures the buck back into her territory before
mating.[citation needed] The roe deer is territorial, and while the territories of a male and a female might
overlap, other roe deer of the same sex are excluded unless they are the doe's offspring of that year.
[31]

Diet[edit]

Roe deer tracks

It feeds mainly on grass, leaves, berries, and young shoots. It particularly likes very young, tender
grass with a high moisture content, i.e., grass that has received rain the day before. Roe deer will
not generally venture into a field that has had or has livestock in it.[47]

Reproduction[edit]

Roe deer fawn, two to three weeks old

The polygamous roe deer males clash over territory in early summer and mate in early autumn.
During courtship, when the males chase the females, they often flatten the underbrush, leaving
behind areas of the forest in the shape of a figure eight called 'roe rings'. Males may also use their
antlers to shovel around fallen foliage and soil as a way of attracting a mate. Roebucks enter
rutting inappetence during the July and August breeding season. Females are monoestrous and
after delayed implantation usually give birth the following June, after a 10-month gestation period,
typically to two spotted fawns of opposite sexes. The fawns remain hidden in long grass from
predators; they are suckled by their mother several times a day for around three months. Young
female roe deer can begin to reproduce when they are around 6 months old.[citation needed] During the
mating season, a male roe deer may mount the same doe several times over a duration of several
hours.[48]

Population ecology[edit]
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,[31] or 10 years.[49]
The roe deer population shows irruptive growth. It is extremely fecund and can double its population
every year;[49] it shows a retarded reaction to population density with females continuing to have a
similar fecundity at high population densities.
Population structure is modified by available nutrition, where populations are irrupting there are few
animals over six years old. Where populations are stagnant or moribund, there is huge fawn
mortality and a large part of the population is over seven years old. Mortality is highest in the first
weeks after birth due to predation, or sometimes farm machinery; or in the first winter due to
starvation or disease, with up to 90% mortality.[31]

Community ecology[edit]
It is a main prey of the Persian leopard (Panthera pardus tulliana) in the Alborz Mountains of Iran.[40]
The nematode Spiculopteragia asymmetrica infects this deer.[50]
Compared to the other large herbivores and omnivores in Iran, it is a poor disperser of plant seeds,
despite consuming relatively more of them.[41]

Uses[edit]
The roe deer is a game animal of great economic value in Europe, providing large amounts of meat
and earning millions of euros in sport hunting. In 1998, some 2,500,000 deer were shot per year in
Western Europe.[49] In Germany alone, 700,000 were shot a year in the 1990s.[31] This is insufficient to
slow down the population growth, and the roe deer continues to increase in number.[49]
It is the main source of venison in Europe.[31] In the 2000s there was growing interest among
consumers in alternative and organic food products such as game meat. Frozen roe venison should
not be stored longer than 10 to 12 months at −25 °C to maintain a high quality. Storage time and
quality can decrease if the bullet has travelled through the digestive tract and contaminated the
meat. The meat, like most game meat, is darker in colour than most farmed meat.[51]

Palaeontology[edit]
Roe deer are thought to have evolved from a species in the Eurasian genus Procapreolus, with
some 10 species occurring from the Late Miocene to the Early Pleistocene, which moved from the
east to Central Europe over the millennia, where Procapreolus cusanus,[26][52] also classified
as Capreolus cusanus. It may not have evolved from C. cusanus, however, because the two extant
species split from each other 1.375 and 2.75 Myr ago,[53] and the western species first appeared in
Europe 600 thousand years ago.[25]
As of 2008 over 3,000 fossil specimens of this species have been recovered from Europe, which
affords a good set of data to elucidate the prehistoric distribution. The distribution of the European
species has fluctuated often since entering Europe. During the some periods during the last Ice
Age it was present in central Europe, but during the Last Glacial Maximum it retreated to refugia in
the Iberian Peninsula (two refugia here), southern France, Italy (likely two), the Balkans and
the Carpathians. When last Ice Age ended the species initially abruptly expanded north of
the Alps to Germany during the Greenland Interstadial, 12.5–10.8 thousand years ago, but during
the cooling of the Younger Dryas, 10.8–10 thousand years ago, it appears to have disappeared
again from this region. It reappeared 9.7–9.5 thousand years ago, reaching northern central Europe.
The modern population in this area appears to have recolonised it from the Carpathians and/or
further east, but not the Balkans or other refugia. This is opposite to the red deer, which recolonised
Europe from Iberia. There has been much admixture of these populations where they meet, also
possibly due to human intervention in some cases.[25]
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 different species may have met in the period just
before that, but during the Ice Age they were also kept apart.[23]

Conservation[edit]
Populations are increasing throughout Europe;[1][31][49] it is considered a species of 'least concern'.[1]

Culture[edit]
In the Hebrew Bible Deuteronomy 14:5, the ‫י ַחְ ֑מּור‬, yahmur, derived from 'to be red', is listed as the
third species of animal that may be eaten. In most Bibles this word has usually been translated as
'roe deer', and it still means as much in Arabic (‫أحمر‬, pronounced 'ahmar) -it was still said to be a
common species in the Mount Carmel area in the 19th century. The King James Bible translated the
word as 'fallow deer', and in other English Bible translations the word has been translated as a
number of different species.[54][55][56][57][58] When Modern Hebrew was reconstructed to serve as the
language of the future Israel in late Ottoman and British Mandatory Palestine, the King James Bible
interpretation was chosen, despite the fallow deer being fallow, not red.
Bambi, the titular character of the book Bambi, A Life in the Woods and its sequel Bambi's
Children was originally a roe deer. When the story was adapted to the animated film Bambi by Walt
Disney Pictures, the main character was changed to a white-tailed deer.[59]