The European Fallow Deer (Dama Dama), also known as the Common Fallow Deer or simply Fallow Deer. The Fallow Deer is a species of mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. The name Fallow is derived from the Deer’s pale brown colour. They were introduced into South Africa many years ago and are thriving off the climate, vegetation and terrain. The European Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) is the fourth-largest extant Deer species, behind the Moose, Elk and Sambar Deer. A male Red Deer is called a stag or hart and a female is called a doe or hind.
| Mount Type | Fallow Deer Shouldermount Left Turn – GG312, Fallow Deer Shouldermount Left Turn -GG313 |
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The male Fallow Deer is known as a buck, the female is a doe, and the young a fawn. Adult bucks are 140–160 cm (55–63 in) long, 85–95 cm (33–37 in) in shoulder height, and typically 60–100 kg (130–220 lb) in weight; does are 130–150 cm (51–59 in) long, 75–85 cm (30–33 in) in shoulder height, and 30–50 kg (66–110 lb) in weight. The largest bucks may measure 190 cm (75 in) long and weigh 150 kg (330 lb). Fawns are born in spring around 30 cm (12 in) and weigh around 4.5 kg (10 lb). Their lifespan is around 12–16 years.
Much variation occurs in the coat colour of the species, with four main variants: common, menil, melanistic and leustic (a genuine colour variety, not albinistic). White is the lightest coloured, almost white; common and menil are darker, and melanistic is very dark, sometimes even black (and is easily confused with the Sika Deer).
Common: Chestnut coat with white mottles, it is most pronounced in summer with a much darker, unspotted coat in the winter. The light-coloured area around the tail is edged with black. The tail is light with a black stripe.
Menil: Spots are more distinct than common in summer and no black is seen around the rump patch or on the tail. In winter, spots are still clear on a darker brown coat.
Melanistic (black): All year the coat is black, shading to greyish-brown. No light-coloured tail patch or spots are seen.
Leucistic (white, but not albino): Fawns are cream-coloured; adults become pure white, especially in winter. Dark eyes and nose are seen. The coat has no spots.
Most herds consist of the common coat variation, yet animals of the menil coat variation are not rare. The melanistic coat variation is generally rarer, and the white coat variation is very much rarer still, although wild New Zealand herds often have a high melanistic percentage.
Only bucks have antlers, which are broad and shovel-shaped (palmate) from three years. In the first two years the antler is a single spike. They are grazing animals; their preferred habitat is mixed woodland and open grassland. During the rut, bucks spread out and females move between them; at that time of year fallow Deer are relatively ungrouped compared with the rest of the year, when they try to stay together in groups of up to 150.
Agile and fast in case of danger, Fallow Deer can run at a maximum speed of 50 km/h (30 mph) over short distances. Being naturally less muscular than other cervids such as the roe Deer, they are not as fast. Fallow Deer can also jump up to 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) high and up to 5 m (16 ft) in length.
Fallow Deer are highly dimorphic, polygynous breeders; the breeding season or rut lasts about 135 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the breeding season tends to occur in the second half of October, while it occurs in April in the Southern Hemisphere, some mating can still occur before and after. This mating behaviour within the rut most often occurs in leks, where males congregate in small groups on mating territories in which the females’ only purpose for visiting these territories is for copulation. Variation within European Fallow Deer mating systems occurs; other than the traditional behaviour of lekking, different types of mating behaviours can include harems, dominance groups, stands, temporary stands, and multiple stands.
Fallow Deer are poly oestrous; they are receptive to males during multiple periods of oestrus throughout the mating season while not gestating. Male rut behaviour includes licking and sniffing around the anus and vulva to determine whether a female is fertile. Males produce high-pitched whines repeatedly to initiate mating; following this display, a female may allow the male to mount; copulation can last as long as 5 minutes.
After a female is impregnated, gestation lasts up to 245 days. Usually one fawn is born; twins are rare. The females can conceive when they are 16 months old, whereas the males can successfully breed at 16 months, but most do not breed until they are 48 months old. The females can become very cagey just before they give birth to their fawn and find secluded areas such as a bush or cave. As soon as the female gives birth, she then licks the fawn to clean it; this helps initiate the maternal bond between the two, and only females provide parental investment; males do not participate in rearing the fawn. After the birth of the fawn occurs, the females do not return to the herd for at least 10 days and for most of the days the mother is separated from the fawn, returning only to feed the fawn. The nursing period lasts about 4 months and happens every 4 hours each day. Rumination is a critical part of development in the fawn’s life, and this develops about 2 to 3 weeks into the fawn’s life. Females initiate the weaning periods for the fawn, which lasts about 20 days; 3 to 4 weeks; later, the fawn will start to follow its mother, and they will finally rejoin the herd together. The mother frequently licks the fawn’s anal area to stimulate suckling, urination, and defecation, which is a critical part of the development of the fawn. Weaning is completed at around 7 months, and at around 12 months, the fawn is independent; after the 135 days of reproduction, the rut comes to an end, which can be characterised by the changes in group size and behaviour.
The male (stag) red Deer is typically 175 to 250 cm (69 to 98 in) long from the nose to the base of the tail and typically weighs 160 to 240 kg (350 to 530 lb); the female (hind) is 160 to 210 cm (63 to 83 in) long and often weighs 120 to 170 kg (260 to 370 lb). The tail adds another 12 to 19 cm (4+1⁄2 to 7+1⁄2 in) and shoulder height is about 95 to 130 cm (37 to 51 in). In Scotland, stags average 201 cm (79 in) in head-and-body length and 122 cm (48 in) high at the shoulder and females average 180 cm (71 in) long and 114 cm (45 in) tall. Based on body mass, they are likely the fourth largest extant Deer species on average, behind the Moose, the Elk and the Sambar Deer.
Only the stags have antlers, which start growing in the spring and are shed each year, usually at the end of winter. Antlers typically measure 71 cm (28 in) in total length and weigh 1 kg (2.2 lb), although large ones can grow to 115 cm (45 in) and weigh 5 kg (11 lb). Antlers, which are made of bone, can grow at a rate of 2.5 cm (1 in) a day. While an antler is growing, it is covered with highly vascular skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone.
Red Deer tend to be reddish-brown in their summer coats, and some individuals may have a few spots on the backs of their summer coats. During the autumn, all red Deer subspecies grow thicker coats of hair, which helps to insulate them during the winter. Autumn is also when some of the stags grow their neck manes. The autumn/winter coats of most subspecies are most distinct.
By the time summer begins, the heavy winter coat has been shed; the animals are known to rub against trees and other objects to help remove hair from their bodies. Red Deer have different colouration based on the seasons and types of habitats, with grey or lighter colouration prevalent in the winter and more reddish and darker coat colouration in the summer.
Mature Red Deer (C. elaphus) usually stay in single-sex groups for most of the year. During the mating season, called the rut, mature stags compete for the attentions of the hinds and will then try to defend the hinds they attract. Rival stags challenge opponents by belling and walking in parallel. This allows combatants to assess each other’s antlers, body size and fighting prowess. If neither stag backs down, a clash of antlers can occur, and stags sometimes sustain serious injuries. Red Deer are among the mammals exhibiting homosexual behaviour.
Male Red Deer have a distinctive roar during the rut, which is an adaptation to forested environments, in contrast to male American Elk stags which “bugle” during the rut in adaptation to open environments. The male Red Deer roar to keep his harem of females together. The females are initially attracted to those males that both roar most often and have the loudest roar call. Males also use the roar call when competing with other males for females during the rut, and along with other forms of posturing and antler fights, is a method used by the males to establish dominance. Roaring is most common during the early dawn and late evening, which is also when the crepuscular Deer are most active in general.
Female Red Deer reach sexual maturity at 2 years of age. Red Deer mating patterns usually involve a dozen or more mating attempts before the first successful one. There may be several more mating before the stag will seek out another mate in his harem. Females in their second autumn can produce one or very rarely two offspring per year. The gestation period is 240 to 262 days, and the offspring weigh about 15 kg (35 lb). After two weeks, calves are able to join the herd and are fully weaned after two months. The offspring will remain with their mothers for almost one full year, leaving around the time the next season’s offspring are produced.
All Red Deer calves are born spotted, as is common with many Deer species, and lose their spots by the end of summer. However, as in many species of Old World Deer, some adults do retain a few spots on the backs of their summer coats. Red Deer live over 20 years in captivity and in the wild they live 10 to 13 years, though some subspecies with less predation pressure average 15 years.
Only mature stags hold harems (groups of hinds), and breeding success peaks at about eight years of age. Stags two to four years old rarely hold harems and spend most of the rut on the periphery of larger harems, as do stags over 11 years old. Young and old stags that do acquire a harem hold it later in the breeding season than those stags in their prime. Harem-holding stags rarely feed and lose up to 20% of their body weight. Stags that enter the rut in poor condition are less likely to make it through to the peak conception period.
Fallow Deer are widespread across England, Wales, southern Scotland and Ireland. They favour broadleaved woodland, grassland and parkland.
Red Deer appear to predominantly be a species of open deciduous and mixed woodland although they are highly adaptable animals and can be found in conifer plantations, open grasslands and meadows, river valleys and flood plains, parkland, scrub and on moorland.
Planning carefully is the key to a good Deer taxidermy job. When tanning and oiling the hides, the best chemicals and methods in the world are used to make sure they will last for generations. At Lifeform Taxidermy, we carefully choose our forms to make sure they fit well, and we’ll even custom make the forms according to any instruction, you may have in mind, at no extra cost. Full-mount trophies come with standard natural habitat bases that are made just for them. We use only the best materials and our 40 years of experience in the field to give your trophies new meaning. The finished trophies look life-like. When repair is needed, every effort is made to repair cuts and scrapes while keeping bullet damage to a minimum. Skin preparation and storage tips for a flawless Deer trophy.
Take care of your trophy before you bring it to the taxidermist – field preparation is the most important start. As soon as you take the hit on your trophy, it starts to rot, and the heat of Africa speeds up the decaying process. The hunter must not drag the body of the animal from the site where it was shot to the waiting hunting truck. The trophy should be protected from the hot metal bed of the hunting truck with a thick layer of cut grass or leaves.
So that nothing goes wrong, the skinning needs to start right away. Remove all of the meat, fat, dirt, and blood from the skin. Clean the skin well. After that, allow the skin to drip dry for a short time, it should then be salted. It is recommended to soak the skin in a salt solution for at least five hours and ideally overnight. Use about 20 kg of salt per 100 litres of water. After taking the skin out of the solution, salt it while it is still flat and flesh side up on a clean surface. To get the full effect of the salt, it needs to be absorbed into the skin all over, into all the crevice’s, especially around the facial features. Put the skin in the shade with a layer of salt on it. After 24 hours, dry the cape. Fold with the hair and ears in when it’s dry. To stop insect damage, pesticides must be sprayed on the skin and in the storage area.
You can hunt a fallow Deer in the same way that you would a white-tailed Deer in North America. The specie is at its most productive in the wee hours of the morning and late in the afternoon. It lies in wait along game paths or close to vegetation where he is likely to be grazing in. These Deer are not hard to kill, yet a bullet that fails might mean losing a prized trophy. Binoculars are a necessary tool.
In order to successfully hunt Fallow Deer, any Deer rifle will do. All the way from a .270 to a 30 calibre magnum will do nicely to bring down this gorgeous animal. Use soft-nose expanding bullets of good quality and shoot the target about a third of the way up its body, behind its front leg. You should be able to take down your Deer with one shot to the chest, as the bullet will penetrate the heart and lungs. Depending on the type of terrain you’re hunting in, your typical shooting range will be between 100 and 200 yards.
How you choose an Deer taxidermy mount depends on things like your budget, wall space, and personal taste. When it comes to the creation of a full mount, we find that considerable discussion with the customer yields the best results. This is due to the fact that each form is given a distinct shape and arrangement.
Life-Form Taxidermy will make an exact copy of the skin as soon as they get all of your mounting instructions. All of the skins are tanned and oiled with high-quality products and methods to make sure they are preserved for years. Each skin is put on a manikin to make sure that it fits well. After the eyes and ears are expertly placed, the skin is sewn by a professional. Before making any last changes, the taxidermist waits until the animal is dry. They put the trophies in crates, and the shipping company hired by the client brings them to the client.
Every year, dust the mounts with a soft brush or compressed air to fluff up the hair. Trophies should be protected from common pests by spraying a light mist of normal aerosol surface pesticide around them. Think about preserving your trophy with Mount Medix Africa. This is a product that Life-Form Taxidermy offers.
Keep trophies in a cool, dry place. Daylight makes the mounts fade over time, so artificial light is better. If there’s too much humidity, open the windows or turn on a fan. Due to salt and tan residue, hair can make moisture beads when the humidity is high. Using a tissue that soaks up water will also soak up the salts.
The pricing of any trophy is subject to the costing stipulated per taxidermy order, quantity of trophies and preferred mounting options, along with additional requirements.
Should you wish to receive a quotation prior to the hunt, the taxidermist can generate such for you. Please contact [email protected]
Taxidermy is an art form that involves a complicated step-by-step process to make sure that each trophy looks just right and is of a high enough quality that it will last your whole life.
The time it takes a taxidermist to mount an animal might range from days to weeks, and possibly several months, depending on the quantity of trophies per taxidermy order, the display preferences, and volumes of client trophies to be produced, simultaneously, per production schedule.
This depends largely on the “what, how, when” factors. A taxidermy order also only becomes available for production scheduling upon receipt of the required deposit and trophy mounting instructions.
