The Fallow Deer (Dama dama) is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae.

It has a brown coat with white mottles that are most pronounced in summer. Variants that are completely white or completely black have been known, but are very rare in the wild. The animal is ca. 1,3 m long without tail (tail 19 cm), 1,1m high at the withers, and weights ca. 100 kg. Its antlers are broad and shovel-like. Its preferred habitat is mixed woodland and open grassland. The males stay on their own and only join the females when in rut at the end of October.

Name

The latin word Damma, roe-like animal was used for roe deer, gazelles and antelopes lies at the root of the modern scientific name, the late Latin Dama, and the German "Damhirsch", French "daim", Dutch "Damhert".

History

The fallow deer was a native of most of Europe during the last Interglacial. In the Holocene, the distribution was restricted to the Mediterranean area, Turkey and parts of North Africa, while western Asia was the home of a close relative, the Persian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica), that is bigger and sports bigger antlers. In the Levant, fallow deer was an important source of meat in the Palaeolithic Kebaran-culture (17.000-10.000 BC), as is shown by animal bones from sites in northern Israel, but the numbers decreased in the following epi-Palaeolithic Natufian culture (10.000-8.500 BC), perhaps because of increased aridity and the decrease of wooded areas.

The fallow deer was spread across central Europe and Britain by the Romans. The Normans kept them for hunting in the royal forests, as was the use of later rulers. From the 18th century onwards, they were released into the wild for hunting purposes. The fallow deer is easily tamed and is often kept semi-domesticated in parks today. In some areas of Central Europe, wild fallow deer, not having any natural enemies, have multiplied so much that they are harmful to young trees.

Sources

• Juliet Clutton-Brock, A natural history of domesticated animals (London, British Museum 1978)
• Simon Davis, The archaeology of animals (London, Batsford 1987).