The roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), also known as the roe, western roe deer, or European roe, is a species of deer. The male of the species is sometimes referred to as a roebuck. The roe is a small deer, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapted to cold environments. The species is widespread in Europe, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, from Scotland to the Caucasus, and east as far as northern Iran.
Etymology The English roe is from the Old English or , from Proto-Germanic *raihô, cognate with Old Norse , Old Saxon rēho, Middle Dutch and Dutch , Old High German , , , German . It is perhaps ultimately derived from a PIE root *rei-, meaning "streaked, spotted or striped".
The word is attested on the 5th-century Caistor-by-Norwich astragalusa roe deer talus bone, written in Elder Futhark as , transliterated as raïhan. pp. 389-91.
In the English language, 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'.
The Koiné Greek name , transliterated pygargos, mentioned in the Septuagint and the works of various writers such as Hesychius, Herodotus and later Pliny, was originally thought to refer to this species (in many European translations of the Bible), although it is now more often believed to refer to the addax. It is derived from the words () and ().
The taxonomic name Capreolus is derived from capra or caprea, meaning 'billy goat', with the diminutive suffix -olus. The meaning of this word in Latin is not entirely clear: it may have meant 'ibex' or 'chamois'. The roe was also known as or in Latin.
Taxonomy Linnaeus first described the roe deer in the modern taxonomic system as Cervus capreolus in 1758. The initially monotypic genus Capreolus was first proposed by John Edward Gray in 1821, although he did not provide a proper description for this taxon. Gray was not actually the first to use the name Capreolus, it has been used by other authors before him. Nonetheless, his publication is seen as taxonomically acceptable. He was generally ignored until the 20th century, most 19th-century works having continued to follow Linnaeus.
Roe deer populations gradually become somewhat larger as one moves further to the east, peaking in Kazakhstan, then becoming smaller again towards the Pacific Ocean. The Soviet mammalogist Vladimir Sokolov had recognised this as a separate species from 1985 already using electrophoretic chromatography to show differences in the fractional protein content of the body tissues. Fawns, females and males make different noises between species. This new taxonomic interpretation (circumscription) was first followed in the American book Mammal Species of the World in 1993. Alexander S. Graphodatsky looked at the karyotypy to present more evidence to recognise these Russian and Asian populations as a separate species, now renamed the eastern or Siberian roe deer (C. pygargus). Populations of the roe deer from east of the Khopyor River and Don River to Korea are considered to be this species.
Subspecies
The Integrated Taxonomic Information System, following the 2005 Mammal Species of the World, gives the following subspecies: C. c. capreolus (Linnaeus, 1758) C. c. canus Miller, 1910 - Spain C. c. caucasicus Nikolay Yakovlevich Dinnik, 1910 - A large subspecies found in the region to the north of the Caucasus Mountains; although Mammal Species of the World appears to recognise the taxon, this work bases itself on a chapter by Lister et al. in the 1998 book The European roe deer: the biology of success, which only recognises the name as provisional. C. c. italicus Enrico Festa, 1925 - Italy
This is just one (extreme) interpretation among a number of them. Two main specialists did not recognise these taxa and considered the species to be without subspecies in 2001. The European Union's Fauna Europaea recognised in 2005 two subspecies, but besides the nominate form recognises the Spanish population as the endemic C. c. garganta Meunier, 1983.
Systematics 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.
Although roe deer were once classified as belonging to the subfamily Cervinae, they are now classified as part of the Capreolinae, which includes the deer that developed in the New World.
Hybrids Both the European roe deer and Siberian roe deer have seen their populations increase, both around the 1930s. In recent times, since the 1960s, the two species have become sympatric where their distributions meet, and there is now a broad 'hybridisation zone' running from the right side of the Volga River up to eastern Poland. It is extremely difficult for hunters to know which species they have bagged. In line with Haldane's rule, female hybrids of the two taxa are fertile, while male hybrids are not. Hybrids are much larger than normal and a Cesarean section was sometimes needed to birth the fawns, becoming larger than their mothers at the age of 4–5 months. F1 hybrid males may be sterile, but backcrosses with the females are possible.
22% of the animals around Moscow carry the mtDNA of the European roe deer and 78% of the Siberian. In the Volgograd region, the European roe deer predominates. In the regions of Stavropol (Russia) and Dnipropetrovsk (Ukraine), most of the deer are Siberian roe deer. In northeastern Poland there is also evidence of introgression with the Siberian roe deer, which was likely an Introduced species. In some cases, such as around Moscow, former introductions of European stock is likely responsible.
Description
The roe deer is a relatively small deer, with a body length of throughout its range, and a shoulder height of , and an average weight of . In healthy populations, where population density is restricted by hunting or predators, bucks are slightly larger than does. Under other conditions, males can be similar in size to females, or slightly smaller, with weights ranging from .
Bucks in good conditions develop antlers up to long with two or three, rarely even four, points. When the male's antlers begin to regrow, they are covered in a thin layer of velvet-like fur which they shed later on after the hair's blood supply is lost. Males may speed up the process by rubbing their antlers on trees, so that their antlers are hard and stiff for the duels during the mating season. Unlike most cervids, roe deer begin regrowing antlers almost immediately after they are shed. In rare cases, some bucks possess only a single antler branch, the result of a genetic defect.
Distribution The roe deer is found in most areas of Europe, with the exception of northernmost Scandinavia, Iceland, Ireland, and the islands of the Mediterranean Sea. In the Mediterranean region, it is largely confined to mountainous areas, and is absent or rare at low altitudes. There is an early Neolithic fossil record from Jordan.
Belgium In Flanders the roe 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.
Britain In England and Wales, roe deer have experienced a substantial expansion in their range in the latter half of the 20th century and continuing into the 21st century.Walker, M.D. 2016. Headhunting; the distribution of deer in Great Britain. British Naturalist 2: 15-25. This increase in population also appears to be affecting woodland ecosystems. 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 longer any large predators in Britain.
In some cases, roe deer have been introduced with human help. In 1884 roe deer 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 deer 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.
In the 1970s, the species was still completely absent from Wales. Roe deer can now be found in most of rural England except for southeast Kent and parts of Wales; anywhere in the UK mainland suitable for roe deer may have a population. Not being a species that needs large areas of woodland to survive, urban roe deer are now a feature of several cities, notably Glasgow and Bristol, where in particular they favour cemeteries. In Wales, they are least common, but they are reasonably well established in Powys and Monmouthshire.
Iran 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).
Ireland Scottish roe deer were introduced to the Lissadell Estate in County Sligo in Ireland around 1870 by Sir Henry Gore-Booth. The Lissadell roe 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.
The Netherlands In the Netherlands, roe deer were extirpated from the entirety of the country except for 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 roe deer in the country. The population is primarily kept in check through the efforts of hunters.
Israel In 1991, a breeding colony of 27 roe deer coming from France, Hungary and Italy were brought in the Hai-Bar Carmel Reserve. A small number of this roe deer population has been reintroduced to the Carmel Mountains from the Carmel Hai-Bar Nature Reserve, with the first deer being released in 1996. 24 to 29 animals had been released by 2006. Some of the reintroduced animals were hand-reared and could be monitored by their responses to their keeper calls.
Ecology
Habitat