Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure

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Fast Facts:

While most deer eat only the velvet that falls off their antlers, stags in the highlands of Scotland also eat the antlers. Red Deer in this area need the extra nutrients to grow a new set of antlers.

Red Deer

Scientific Name	Cervus elaphus
Classification	Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Artiodactyla Family: Cervidae
Status	Not listed.
Range	Southern Scandinavia, Western Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor. They have been introduced into Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.
Habitat	Forest
Diet	Grass, heather, twigs, leaves and fruit
Size	Height: 4-5 feet Length: 5-9 feet Weight: 220-265 pounds
Lifespan	17 - 20 yrs.
Location
Print Fact Sheet	Red Deer

Special Features

In the summer the coats of the Red Deer are a bright chestnut brown. During the fall they grow waterproof guard hairs which turns the coat much darker.
A stag with twelve points on his antlers is called a royal stag.
Fighting stags will sometimes lock their horns and not be able to separate. In this case, both will die from starvation.

Social Structure & Behavior

Reproduction
Sexual maturity is 2-4 years for females and 5-6 years for males. Mating is in early fall and the mating season is called rut. Gestation is 235 days resulting in a single birth, twins are rare. A calf will stay with its mother until the next calf is born