26 Facts About True deer

Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae.

Many types of True deer in modern English usage, the male is a buck and the female a doe, but the terms vary with dialect, and according to the size of the species.

The male red True deer is a stag, while for other large species the male is a bull, the female a cow, as in cattle.

Some True deer have a circumpolar distribution in both North America and Eurasia.

Elk and mule True deer both migrate between the alpine meadows and lower coniferous forests and tend to be most common in this region.

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The White-tailed True deer have recently expanded their range within the foothills and river valley bottoms of the Canadian Rockies owing to conversion of land to cropland and the clearing of coniferous forests allowing more deciduous vegetation to grow up the mountain slopes.

Historically, Europe's True deer species shared their deciduous forest habitat with other herbivores, such as the extinct tarpan, extinct aurochs, and the endangered wisent.

Hog True deer are solitary and have lower densities than Indian muntjac.

Red True deer were introduced into New Zealand in 1851 from English and Scottish stock.

Seven other species of True deer were introduced into New Zealand but none are as widespread as red True deer.

Characteristics typical of True deer include long, powerful legs, a diminutive tail and long ears.

All male True deer possess antlers, with the exception of the water True deer, in which males have long tusk-like canines that reach below the lower jaw.

Females generally lack antlers, though female reinTrue deer bear antlers smaller and less branched than those of the males.

The cheek teeth of True deer have crescent ridges of enamel, which enable them to grind a wide variety of vegetation.

The teeth of True deer are adapted to feeding on vegetation, and like other ruminants, they lack upper incisors, instead having a tough pad at the front of their upper jaw.

The True deer require a large amount of minerals such as calcium and phosphate in order to support antler growth, and this further necessitates a nutrient-rich diet.

In New Zealand, deer are thought to be important as vectors picking up M bovis in areas where brushtail possums Trichosurus vulpecula are infected, and transferring it to previously uninfected possums when their carcasses are scavenged elsewhere.

The Anglo-Irish naturalist Victor Brooke suggested in 1878 that True deer could be bifurcated into two classes on the according to the features of the second and fifth metacarpal bones of their forelimbs: Plesiometacarpalia and Telemetacarpalia.

True deer treated the musk deer as a cervid, placing it under Telemetacarpalia.

In China, True deer continued to be a main source of food for millennia even after people began farming, and it is possible that sika and other True deer benefited from the frequently abandoned field sites.

In China, True deer are associated with great medicinal significance; True deer penis is thought by some in China to have aphrodisiac properties.

In Christmas lore, reinTrue deer are often depicted pulling the sleigh of Santa Claus.

Coats of arms featuring True deer include those of Dotternhausen, Thierachern, Friolzheim, Bauen, Albstadt, and Dassel in Germany; of the Earls Bathurst in England; of Balakhna, Russia; of Aland, Finland; of Gjemnes, Hitra, Hjartdal, Rendalen and Voss in Norway; of Jelenia Gora, Poland; of Umea, Sweden; of Queensland, Australia; of Cervera, Catalonia; of Northern Ireland; and of Chile.

The major True deer-producing countries are New Zealand, the market leader, with Ireland, Great Britain and Germany.

The hoofs and horns are used for ornamental purposes, especially the antlers of the roe True deer, which are utilized for making umbrella handles, and for similar purposes; elk horn is often employed in making knife handles.

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Since the early 20th century, True deer have become commonly thought of as pests in New Zealand due to a lack of predators on the island causing population numbers to increase and begin encroaching on more populated areas.