red deer
Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
- The Mammal Society - Red Deer
- The British Deer Society - Red Deer
- Frontiers - Frontiers in Microbiology - Hybridization alters red deer gut microbiome and metabolites
- Animal Diversity Web - Cervus elaphus
- CiteSeerX - Phylogeography of red deer (Cervus elaphus) in Europe
- A-Z Animals - Red Deer
- Nature - Scientific Reports - Spatial variation in red deer density in a transboundary forest ecosystem
- BMC - Animal Biotelemetry - Spatial behavior of red deer (Cervus elaphus) in Northern Apennines: are we managing them correctly?
- Related Topics:
- elk
- Manchurian red deer
- Alashan wapiti
red deer, (Cervus elaphus), well-knowndeer, in the family Cervidae (order Artiodactyla), that is native toNorth America,Europe, Asia, and northwestern Africa and was introduced intoNew Zealand. The red deer has long been hunted for both sport and food. Found primarily in woodlands, it lives in sexually segregated herds except during the breeding season, when the males (harts) fight forharems of females (hinds). A largeanimal, the red deer stands about 1.2 metres (4 feet) tall at the shoulder. Its coat is reddish brown, darkening to grayish brown in winter, with lighter underparts and a light rump. The hart has long, regularly branched antlers bearing a total of 10 or more tines; an animal with 12 tines is known as a “Royal,” and one with 14 tines is a “Wilson.”
TheInternational Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the red deer as a species of least concern; however, it considers some of the approximately 20 subspecies threatened because of hunting pressure andhabitat loss. Some subspecies from North America andEurasia have also declined because of interbreeding with nonnative red deer subspecies. Theelk, or wapiti (Cervus elaphus canadensis), is the largest subspecies of red deer.