Roe hunting

One of the most beautiful animals on the globe is the roe deer. Representatives of the deer family have practically no ramifications on their horns, their shape is rounded and resembles curls. The horns are covered with rough to the touch tubercles.Roe deer.Beast biology.
Roe deer are divided into two groups: East – Siberian and Western – European, the first group includes the Caucasian and Central Asian roe deer. In the European deer the horns rarely reach 30 cm, while in the Siberian representatives they reach 45 cm in length.

This species used to live in the forest-steppe, however, due to the development of agriculture and shooting, these animals headed towards the more northern areas. Today they can be found in the taiga, in the Caucasus Mountains and in the Siberian forests. Roe deer mostly live in river valleys and reed thickets, in coniferous and deciduous forests.

By their color, roe deer and musk deer almost do not differ from each other. In winter, they are dark brown or rusty, and in summer they are light gray. Siberian deer are twice as large as Western European in weight and males reach 59 kg. If we compare the structure of the body of roe deer and ordinary deer, then our beauty has a more dense one. In addition, the roe deer, unlike a deer, has a tail. In the summer period roe are fed with various grass and they like to visit not only forest lawns, but also fields covered with clover. In the fall of these found on the berries, there they eat ripe and juicy berries and ripe wild fruit. In winter, roe deer is not easy. Their diet at this time consists of buds and not only shoots of trees, but also beech nuts, acorns, lichen, moss and dry grass, which they get from the snow. Roes drink clean running water several times a day, so they can always be found near rivers or streams.

European roe deer (female)
European roe deer

In the summer, as a rule, roe deer go to graze at a time when the heat subsides, that is, towards evening. They make small transitions from place to place. During this period, roe deer live one by one; they do not form herds and protect their area from strangers. Most of the day in the winter they are fattening. While feeding, roe deer behave restlessly, fearing every moment an attack by predators. Roe deer look around and listen to any otherworldly sounds.

This animal can be considered settled, it chooses with its permanent territory a plot of no more than 2 hectares. However, during the winter period roe migrate to where it is easier to get food, and therefore to places where there is little snow. Herds of roe deer often travel 100 – 300 km and look for pastures for food, and in spring they return to their places. Often during such transitions you can find a herd of up to 50 heads. In mixed groups of 20 – 30 individuals of roe deer, as a rule, you are going to the autumn period.

The representatives of this kind of rut ends in the fall, and begins in early summer. During this period, the males are especially fierce towards their rivals. If there are fights between them, they often end with the death of one of the males. Females do not get a particularly courteous attitude either. The male deer pursues the female until it gets tired and takes on a horizontal position, but even after that the male forces her to stand up and pursue further. Often in this race roe deer make movements around a single tree and tread a fairly wide path. After the male covers one female, his attention switches to another and a new race begins. Roe deers do not have the natural peculiarity of creating “harems”. At the end of the rut, deer gather in small groups of mixed type in order to make the autumn transition. Pregnancy in these animals is interesting. It lasts from 6 to 9 months. Roe deer grows faster if good conditions match this.

The development of the fetus is suspended during extreme cold, if the female is starving. If favorable conditions are created for the fetus, then it begins to grow and develop again. Roe deer hotel occurs from late spring to early summer. One or two babies are born, but it happens that three or four cubs are born. During the first week of life, the babies lie hiding in the grass. Only a few days later they begin to follow the mother and then do not leave her for a second. This continues throughout the year, only during the rut they try to stay away from their mother, because fearing ferocious males. There were cases when a male by negligence killed a cub. From birth, the young roe has teeth, but they fall out when he is ten years old. Females at this age are still capable of posterity. Roe deer – males live up to 16 years, and females a little less until 11 – 12 years. Already at the age of one year, the first horns appear in young roe deer. A year later, they change and now the horns are already growing with 2 – 3 processes. At the age of three roe deer reaches its peak.