| Capreolus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| A male and a femaleEuropean roe deer | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Cervidae |
| Subfamily: | Capreolinae |
| Tribe: | Capreolini |
| Genus: | Capreolus Gray, 1821 |
| Type species | |
| Cervus capreolus | |
| Species | |
Capreolus is a genus of deer, the roe deer. It contains two species native to Eurasia, and fossil evidence also supports their former presence in North America.[1]
Englishroe is fromOld Englishra orrá, fromraha, fromProto-Germanic*raikhaz, cognate toOld Norsera,Old Saxonreho,Middle Dutch andDutchree,Old High Germanreh,GermanReh. It is perhaps ultimately derived from aPIE root*rei-, meaning "streaked, spotted or striped".[2][3]
The word is attested on the 5th-centuryCaistor-by-Norwich astragalus -a roe deertalus bone, written inElder Futhark asᚱᚨᛇᚺᚨᚾ, transliterated asraïhan.[4][5]
In the English language this animal was originally simply called a 'roe', but over time the word 'roe' has become a qualifier and the creature is now usually called a 'roe deer'.[6]
TheKoiné Greek nameπύγαργος, transliterated 'pygargos', mentioned in theSeptuagint and the works of various writers such asHesychius,Herodotus and laterPliny,[7] 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 theaddax. It is derived from the wordspyge 'buttocks' andargo 'white'.
The taxonomic nameCapreolus is derived fromcapra orcaprea, meaning 'billy goat', with the diminutive suffix -olus. The meaning of this word inLatin is not entirely clear: it may have meant 'ibex' or 'chamois'.[8] The roe deer was also known ascapraginus orcapruginus in Latin.[9]
Roe deer are most closely related to thewater deerHydropotes, and, counterintuitively, the three species in this group, called the Capreolini, are most closely related toelk and mooseAlces.[10]
Although roe deer were once classified as belonging to thesubfamilyCervinae, they are now classified as part of theCapreolinae, which includes the deer from the New World.[11]
Roe deer are thought to have evolved from a species in the Eurasian genusProcapreolus,[10][12] with some 10 species occurring from theLate Miocene to theEarly Pleistocene, which moved from the east to Central Europe over the millennia, whereProcapreolus cusanus occurred,[12] also classified asCapreolus cusanus. It may not have evolved fromC. cusanus, however, because the two extant species split from each other 1.375 and 2.75 Myr ago,[13] and the western species first appeared in Europe 600 thousand years ago.[14]
The Siberian roe deer had split into two subspecies,C. pygargus pygargus andC. pygargus tianschanicus in the interval between 229 and 462.3 thousand years ago.[13]
The distribution of the European species has fluctuated often since entering Europe. During some periods during theLast Glacial Period it was present in central Europe, but during theLast Glacial Maximum it retreated torefugia in theIberian Peninsula (two refugia here),Southern France,Italy (likely two), theBalkans and theCarpathians. When the last ice age ended, the species initially abruptly expanded north of theAlps to Germany during theGreenland Interstadial, 12.5–10.8 thousand years ago. During the cooling of theYounger Dryas, 10.8–10 thousand years ago, the species appears to have disappeared again from this region. It reappeared 9.7–9.5 thousand years ago, reaching northern central Europe. The modern population in this area appears to have recolonised it from the Carpathians and/or further east, but not the Balkans or other refugia. This is opposite to thered deer, which recolonised Europe from Iberia. There has been much admixture of these populations where they meet, also possibly due to human intervention in some cases.[14] It had become a very common species by theLate Neolithic, as farming by humans spread across the continent, which modified the environment so that more openhabitat was created from the woodland, which advantaged the creatures.[15]
It was previously assumed thatCapreolus only ever inhabited Eurasia, the likely ancestral home for the Capreolinae. However, a 2014 paleontological study recovered fossil remains of the speciesCapreolus constantini, previously known only from Russia, from thePliocene ofHidalgo, Mexico. This suggests the existence of a previously unknown dispersal event ofCapreolus from Eurasia to North America acrossBeringia during the Pliocene, where the genus is no longer found in the present day.[1]
There are at least two extant species:
| Common name | Scientific name and subspecies | Range | Size and ecology | IUCN status and estimated population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| European roe deer
| Capreolus capreolus (Linnaeus, 1758) | Scotland south to the Mediterranean and east to Iran and the Caucasus. | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Siberian roe deer
| Capreolus pygargus (Pallas, 1771) Two subspecies
| Urals south to the Caucasus and east to Manchuria. | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
The fossil species †Capreolus constantiniVislobokova, Dmitrieva, & Kalmykov, 1995 from the Pliocene is the oldest known species, and appears to have had aHolarctic distribution, being known from both Siberia and central Mexico.[1]
Both species have seen their populations increase, both around the 1930s. In recent times, since the 1960s,[11] the two species have becomesympatric where their distributions meet, and there is now a broad 'hybridization zone' running from the right hand side of the Volga River up to eastern Poland. It is extremely difficult for hunters to know which species they have bagged.[16] In line withHaldane's rule, female hybrids of the twotaxa are fertile while male hybrids are not.[14][17] Hybrids are much larger than normal and acesarean 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 is possible.[17]
22% of the animals aroundMoscow carry the mtDNA of the European roe deer and 78% of the Siberian. In the Volgograd region the European deer predominates.[16] In Stavropol and the Dnipropetrovsk region ofUkraine most of the roe are Siberian.[16][18] In northeasternPoland there is also evidence ofintrogression with the Siberian deer, which was likelyintroduced.[19] In some cases, such as around Moscow, former introductions of European stock is likely responsible.[16] It is thought that during theMiddle Ages the two species were kept apart due to hunting pressure and an abundance of predators, the different populations may have met in the period before that, but during the Ice Age they were also kept apart.[11]
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