Roe-deer

Close names and species

The male is called gibe; the female, chevrette; the young person before 6 months, fawn; the young person between 6 months and 1 year, chevrillard. The roe-deer is sometimes called cabrol.

In Canadian French, the word roe-deer can also indicate the Cerf of Virginia.

Distribution and habitat

The roe-deer attends especially areas having a density of 50% of leafy trees and 50% of conifers. The roe-deer is present in Europe and Asia where it can reach 20 to 30 heads for 100 hectare.

He lives in varied mediums: Wood, Forest S of Leafy S or Coniferous S, thickets with varied herbaceous vegetation or clearings. The Taillis under grove with released spaces are favorable for him. One also finds it in fields and meadows, like in faunal parks and reserves. It is sedentary, except during the time of the rut where the male moves to go to fertilize the greatest number of females on its territory. Its manners are especially twilight, but it is also visible in full day. It can live as a recluse, by couple or in family groups (Harde S) composed of one or more females and their calf. In general, the troops from 10 to 15 heads are formed only in autumn and winter. Apart from the rut, the males are rather solitary. Excel runner and jumper, the roe-deer also swims very well, but it selected this option only when it is obliged by it or when it is threatened. In the presence of a danger, the fawns are often “abandoned” temporarily by the females. Older, in the escape, they follow their mother.

Food mode

It is a really forest animal, whose digestive system does not digest or badly the hays and graminaceous dry which are the most frequent plants in nonforest medium (except in spring and except in certain cultivated mediums). Nevertheless, for a few decades, the roe-deers have modified their behaviors and are done many and frequent in the fields where they benefit in particular from the cultures of winter.
La reduction in the human presence in rural environment, related on the Rural migration and agricultural mechanization, could have supported this phenomenon, just as the retreat of the Prairie S and the Bocage.

In spring and in summer, the roe-deer consumes in forest the sheets of many trees Feuillu S (Chêne, Charme, maple, Cornouiller…), much of Graminaceous S, and some Dicotylédone S. In winter, it consumes the Ronce S, the heather Callune, the Lierre on the trunks and some other plants or mushrooms. He eats also Gland S, Faîne S, and sometimes does not hesitate to consume certain cultures of winter (alfalfa in particular). Fond of delicacies of Salt, the roe-deers lick the blocks of salt as of their installation by the hunters which can thus fix a population.

Behavior

The roe-deer became the mammal most common Herbivore wild in forest in many countries of the northern hemisphere. There however remains very discrete. Its populations are thus difficult to count, the more so as he is primarily forester. If it approaches readily the dwellings close to the edges the morning early or the night, it flees the contact of the man and is obstructed by repetitive disturbances. Its musculature and its circulatory system are adapted to the immediate escape and the jumps enabling him to cross the low Clôture S and the bushes and a fast escape in dense forest or in the middle of the ronciers. But it becomes exhausted quickly with the race in open medium.

Social behavior

It is Grégaire and can form groups of more than 10 individuals in open medium in winter. The adult is Sédentaire in forest on a enforesté territory from 30 to 60 hectares, which it preserves during all his life. Like the Stag Elaphe, it passes approximately 50% of its time to rest and thus has networks of zones of rest on its territory. It also occasionally exploits the accesses of the forests. It communicates especially by postures and remote by a cry which evokes a barking of dog.
Certains more adventurous individuals migrates and is integrated in other groups, maintaining the genetic Diversité the local populations within regional Métapopulation S, provided that the forests are not too much isolated the ones from the others by phenomena of ecological Insularisation and Fragmentation écopaysagère.
Son behavior is modified in the absence of predatory natural (wolf, lynx); it moves less and is less muscular.

Territorial behavior

In the males, it is characterized seven months per annum (February at August) by an activity of hormonal marking of the territory, by smear and grattis (régalis). This behavior poses problem for the forest Régénération where populations its dense. A study carried to France on seedlings of sessile Chêne 3 years exposed to the roe-deer in controlled conditions (with follow-up of the state of the trees during 3 years). After 3 years, 39% of the seedlings had died (it is more than the natural rate of mortality which is high at the young oaks). 51% were a loss important height compared to their initial height (higher than 20 cm) and 10% only have normally developed (like the pilot seedlings not “rubbed” . This study also showed that wounds made in spring (gone up Sève, more fragile sheets.) are twice more important, “with equal behavior of the roe-deer” .
Ces results could be moderate by two elements which remain assumption to date not scientifically shown (but which does not seem to have been the subject of studies);

more the roe-deers are numerous, more they tend to mark their territory
the roe-deers more actively seem to mark their territory where they feel the odor of the Man (and of the dogs?), their damage being then amplified on the levels resulting from Seedbed S then replanted in forest, or in the pieces strongly managed by the Man. Nevertheless their damage cannot be denied where they are very numerous (the end of a piece is enough to strongly support natural regeneration there).

Pour to limit the damage on the trees, the foresters ask the hunters to respect a “balance sylvo-hunting” which is not always consensual. The foresters do not want to deprive themselves either of the roe-deers which belong to the forest ecosystem and which, with the others " big games " , contribute to the income of the forest often to a total value of approximately 50%, even more.

Reproduction

In period of Rut, the males have a specific territorial behavior: they rub to them wood against trees, deposit the odorous secretion of their frontal Glandes and scrape the ground. Before the Coupling, the male which follows a female often borrows a circular route or having the form of one 8 called “round of witch”.

The Rut has in July place and August. After fecundation, the Embryon is fixed by “gestation differed” only at the end of 4 months at the end of December - at the beginning of January. Direct gestation lasts 5 months either 41 weeks (or 9 months 1/2 or 280 days). A secondary rut takes place between October and December. This secondary rut is called wrongly “false rut”. On this occasion, a small number of females are fertilized of this manner. In this case, gestation is direct and the fawns are born in May - June. The range includes/understands from 1 to 3 small but more generally 2. Breast feeding lasts from 2 to 3 months. The young person émancipe at the end of the 1st year of life. Sexual maturity occurs during the second year of life.

The roe-deer can live up to 15 years.

Predatory

The predatory ones of the roe-deer are the wolf, the wandering Chien S, the lynx, the Glouton, the Brown bear, the russet-red Renard, the man.

Ecological importance

As a herbivore, the roe-deer controls the density of the vegetation within its ecosystem, either by chattering, or by the smears and the wounds which it causes with the young trees to mark its territory. It contributes to the maintenance of zones of clearings or half-open mediums and sometimes of corridors intra- or inter-foresters. As for other animals its trampling can damage the fragile grounds (slopes, sands, etc) but also contribute to hide seeds, or on the contrary to put at the day of hidden in the past seeds and to allow them to germinate. It is nevertheless a light animal which is not considered to damage the grounds.

In a natural system, it itself is controlled by its predatory (wolf, lynx) and by the diseases and the parasitism which develop more quickly when its populations are densifient.
Comme of many animals, it plays a part of diffusion for certain species (of which Parasite S) while transporting Graine S and various Propagule S (spores of mushrooms, eggs, larvae or small animal) in its peeling, under its shoes and in its digestive tract.

Lastly, in the forests where the large predatory carnivores survived, it constitutes an important prey for the latter. When he dies of natural death (disease, parasitism), or of the continuations of wound of hunting or other causes (Roadkill, Empoisonnement, etc), its corpse remains a source of food for the Invertébré S and animal Nécrophage S.

Its bones and especially its wood can be corroded by other animals (squirrel in particular) which seem to recover rock salt there (in particular in the areas naturally acid and low in calcium) and perhaps also to sharpen their teeth. In the forests polluted by Heavy metals (Lead in particular) resulting from After-effects of war or industrial, or by the repercussions of the passage of the cloud of Tchernobyl, the corpse and the skeleton of the roe-deer can be a source of Polluant S which turn over directly in the Food chain.

Diseases

The roe-deer is all the more sensitive to various parasitic diseases that its populations are dense and that it is in situation of forced promiscuity. This animal is easily infested by the Tique S, increasingly present in forest, and that it undoubtedly contributes, with the stag and wild boar to be hawked. These ticks are vectrices various diseases, of which the Maladie of Lyme. The oestridiose, the ditch and/or the Strongylose (parasitic infestation, by worms known as pulmonary Strongle S) affect many roe-deers, in particular in the livestock underfed or weakened by the winter.

The roe-deer and the man

Regulation of the populations by natural causes and the man

In the absence of predatory natural (lynx and wolf) or vis-a-vis the great scarcity of the latter, and because of the hunt plans and by “rational” shooting , the populations of roe-deer very strongly increased at the XXème century, in Germany and France in particular. At present, except in the areas where the lynx is present, only the russet-red Renard or of the wandering dogs exerts a selective pressure by the predation, on the very young individuals. The studies of ONCFS, based on the analysis of the stomachic contents or droppings show that the roe-deer constitutes a negligible share of the food of the fox (of the made films Infrarouge S of night show to become it of a corpse of roe-deer (or wild boar). It is seen there that the fox has readily a behavior Nécrophage, as besides some Mustélidé S which did not have this reputation; the fact that a fox eats a corpse, or that one finds traces of legs of fox close to a corpse of roe-deer does not mean by no means that it attacked the animal). Wandering dogs can kill or wound full chevrettes, and disturb the animal in the “décantonnant” by their continuations, imitated in that by stray current dogs.

The Roadkill (animal killed on the roads) at the origin of died of a growing number of roe-deers, especially in the forest areas very fragmented by not enclosed highways. It arrived, in certain districts of FR of Germany, that the shot-firing pattern is cancelled purely and simply, the road accidents having carried out the taking away intended for the hunters. Écoducs are built since the years 1980, and various preventive methods help to decrease this type of mortality (electrified Clôture S, engrillagements, Répulsif S or intended products to confine the roe-deers far from these roads.

At the time of the Haymaking and harvests, in spite of the addition of devices intended to frighten the roe-deer to make it flee, the modern reapers kill out of young animals which remain instinctively carpet on the ground to protect itself.

Hunting

The situation of the roe-deer in Europe seems better than it forever be it, in term of population and demography, perhaps not in medical term and of genetic Diversité.
Son attachment with a restricted territory and the little of damage which it makes indicates it like a Gibier popular and most likely to adapt to new the Biotope S created by the modern world. The hunters are interested more and more in its catch, but also in its conservation. As example, it profits in France, in the majority of the departments, the provisions of “the quantitative shot-firing pattern”. Its small size, its discretion, its adaptability, as its rusticity enable him to occupy of many context. Although regarded as large Game, the roe-deer is very often drawn with Plomb S during huntings for small game.

The Battue in forest is its principal mode of Chasse in France. She is also regarded as a more or less effective and practical means to control the populations of them. But one drives out also the roe-deer with the mounting, and as it is also present in many territories at small woods reserved for small the Gibier, its passage on the line in fact a sometimes impromptu and drawn additional game with leads, like the Lièvre. This animal formerly typically forest and of the edges passes an increasing share of its time in the overdrafts or the fields. When drawn with small shot, it is often wounded and can flee with Grenaille S of lead encrusted, possible factor of Saturnisme for him, future consumers and predatory the or necrophagous ones who will consume it once died.
Pour of the reasons ethical S and Environment ales (cf Toxicity of the ammunition), but also for reasons of effectiveness, news Balle S without lead (standard Brenneke or Sauvestre, or with shoe) appeared in the years 1990 to 2000 for big game. They are used more and more in spite of a higher cost. Their effectiveness and precision with long range indeed are very improved by a device supporting a better rotation, stabilizing the ball, and/or by a design in two elements (the second coming to strike the first with the impact, which causes a state of shock stopping the race of the animal and considered to shorten its sufferings). The roe-deer is also sometimes driven out with the arc.

Because of the damage which it can make on the young seedlings and sometimes in the fields, the agricultural world, and in particular in Great Britain, the roe-deer was regarded a long time as noxious animal and drawn in all seasons with the smooth rifle, with rabbits. In France, when it was not braconné, after the hunting rights for all allotted by the French revolution in reaction to old the privileges of the Noblesse, the roe-deer had strongly regressed of 18th at the 19th century. It then became a game snuffed and of commercial interest. Its economic profitability then compensated for its damage in addition modest as long as it does not constitute important populations.
L' interest even passion for the Trophy S, was translated in certain countries by qualitative attempts at selection (one draws only the animals whose wood do not correspond to the required standard when they are in full reproductive force, and one draws them when they are old to feed the collections of trophies). This hunting is generally practiced with the rifle and the approach. Famous trophies are thus now drawn in countries where the roe-deer was considered formerly little, for example in the Sussex or in Scotland.

The Germanic tradition hunting grants a place particular to hunting for the roe-deer. She especially encouraged in Germany the constitution of important livestock which forms part of the rural landscape today. A ethologic distinction of same is now made between the forest, alive roe-deer in the vast homogeneous wooded solid masses, and a “roe-deer of the fields” , which was accustomed to the cultivated plains strewn with small woods and reproduced there. The selective shooting is made, approximately six months per annum, with the approach, the mounting or the bird call at the time of the rut (the roe-deer lets itself rather easily delude, which is made profitable by the hunters of Central Europe, which from July 15th to August 15th, call the gibe, which is theoretically drawn only when it belongs to the range of the animals with “to select” ). The hunters generally have patience until the end of the period of the rut to draw the roe-deers carrying large trophies which were granted by the hunt plan: they will have had thus the possibility of reproducing and of transmitting genetic qualities that the hunters estimate related to the quality of wood (although this quality seems also dependant on abundance in oligoéléments and minerals of food available, and sometimes offered to the roe-deers).

The hunter is put in shift May at June, when the moult is finished, whereas the roe-deers is known as “ red ”.

; Census of the livestock It is a work ideally annual, delicate, fact at the end of the winter and concluded at the beginning from spring (after natural winter mortalities and before the settings-low). It aims at preparing an hunt plan which can balance the populations by a number of gibes ideally equal to that of the chevrettes, to optimize the reproduction. It can also bring elements on the health condition, an imbalance of the sex-ratio . It makes it possible to determine or anticipate possible a “overpopulation” (relative state, function of the capacity of reception of the “district” , which brutally can and to strongly vary, continuation for example with close-cropped cuts, forest work, installations of fences, cultures huntings, Agrainage, etc). The thresholds of balance hunting often make the subject of debate between foresters and hunters, the first often wishing a number of roe-deers and large herbivorous less than than wish the hunters. Obligations of shot-firing patterns are more and more often registered in the leasing agreements of the hunting rights in public forest, with in theory obligation of results.
Le hunter has scales in addition enabling him to estimate the value hunting of its ground, according to various elements écopaysagers such as the percentage of timberings, meadows and edges cultivated, the nature and the structure of the forest vegetation, the quality of the grounds and the characteristics geological local. From the point of view of balances sylvo-huntings, the acceptable density is considered to vary from three to fifteen roe-deers by 100 hectares. These densities are sometimes largely exceeded.
Sur these bases, and after census, on a territory where for example hundred adult roe-deers live, the hunters judge that they will be able to draw in the season forty parts, this figure being that of the births so as to maintain an increase annual stable, which will be able however " dévier" objective of management according to softness or rigor of the winter, of the epidemics or other factors, which following counting will establish. The table of hunting anticipated is generally also divided between the two sexes, with a taking away makes as follows, through the age groups of its animals: 20 male subjects will be drawn, including 7 four year old gibes and more, 3 gibes of two and three years, 7 one year old gibes, 3 fawns of the year. Moreover, 20 chevrettes are “to eliminate” (10 adult subjects, 2 one year, and 8 fawns of the year).
On a territory ideally managed for hunting, these operations are considered to be profitable starting from a minimum livestock of an about sixty adult roe-deers, which requires approximately 600 ha to establish a rational shot-firing pattern. Except in the public forests and some large private forests, it is rare that only one person has such a surface, the hunters thus seek with mutualiser their efforts and benefit, via a total hunt plan redistributed according to the importance of the contributions of the associates.

; Selective hunting It is an important principle of the management known as rational of game. In the absence of predatory natural, the natural selection is not done normally any more. The hunt plan applies an artificial selection of the gibe, which implies obviously a capacity of the hunters to appreciate its age and its health condition, but which in the fact interferes much with a judgment on the trophy of the animal. Easily recognizable, the chevrillards of the year are especially selected according to their general aspect, any weak subject, wounded, thinned down or damaged should be eliminated. The best subjects which carry their first wood as of the autumn, in the form of small buttons are preserved at least until the following year.
Le gibe one year old to the thin neck, the pointed muzzle and the reddish figure must be eliminated if it does not carry two scraping-knives length of the ears, the best subjects having already wood fourchus.
Le gibe two year old, with the less thin neck, bearing stains white above the black of naseaux, must raise wood fourchus, or better still, already furnished with six points. The carriers of scraping-knives, at this age, must be eliminated.
Le gibe three year old to the thickened neck, the dark gray face and whose mass of the body goes on the forehand, must carry six points. Wood neither thick, nor are still well beaded.
Le gibe four year old, from which the nasal white spot disappeared, consolidates the mass of its trophy and does not have to be drawn, except anomaly of the wood or bad condition of the body. As from five years, the trophy of the gibe arrived at its apogee, and it any more but does not remain to thwart its tricks and to strike down it of a good ball.

A traditional hunt plan lays down the shooting only one small percentage of the gibes of two and three years, because the hunter is supposed to have already eliminated, among the chevrillards and the one year subjects, almost all the undesirable animals. The benefits of the former “selection” are judged to already be felt.

The selective shooting of the chevrettes aims at eliminating the subjects whose offspring is weak, malingre, or who put low too late, after mid-June. (The chevrillards are theoretically killed before the mother). The hunters seek with also killing those which generated three small. This selection requires competences and a good experiment; To choose the females to be preserved and eliminate is even more difficult than for the gibe. For the fawns of the year and the one year chevrettes, the hunter estimates the sex of the animal at its size and its plumpness, which one compares - if possible - with those of the animals of the same age. The comparisons of size between chevrettes of the same territory guide the hunter in its choice, but to select the animals largest is not necessarily rational on the difficult territories.
the selection of the females being done as from September, time often misses to finish an hunt plan, with the mounting or the approach. Small trackings (without dogs and with low noise are then practiced, by informing the other users of the forest because of the risks of stray bullet). One thus seeks to make leave the roe-deers as slowly as possible, to leave with the hunters time to judge if the animals must be drawn or not. This is done if possible before November, so that the young gibes having already posed (lost) their wood are not drawn by error.

; Poaching In certain areas, the roe-deer seems to be one of the braconnés animals. this activity is facilitated by the average weight of the animal, the possibility of hiding it easily, a considered venaison, which is output easily and is sold at very handsome price. The installation of collet S in the passages, the mounting on the edges or forest tracks, the shooting of night on board vehicles are thus practiced. In the same way the illegal sale of animals killed or wounded by circulation, found on the edges of road still seems to be able to exist, with additional risks and responsibilities because of the fact that sick animals and parasitized, or poisoned (for example by pesticides) are likely more to be victims of the Roadkill.

Mythology

In the Welsh myth Cad Goddeu, Arawn steals a white roe-deer pertaining to Annwn, symbol of the voyage of the heart towards the Mort.

See too

Cervidé
Sylviculture

External bonds

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