red deer

Red Deer (Cervus elaphus), known as Elk in North America, are the second largest species of deer in the world, after Alces alces (the moose or, in Europe, elk). The Red Deer is the most widely distributed of deer species, inhabiting all of northern Europe and Asia, as well as North America and the Atlas Mountains region of northwestern Africa, being the only species of deer to inhabit Africa. Red Deer have been imported to other areas including New Zealand and Argentina, and in many parts of the world, the meat from the Red Deer is widely used as a food source.

Red Deer are ruminants which are characterized by an even number of toes, and a four chambered stomach. For many years, the North American subspecies was believed to be a distinct species due to easily observed differences in coloring, size and behavior, but the fact that Eurasian Red Deer and North American Elk produce fertile offspring contradicted that speculation. Recent DNA studies suggest that two species may exist, in fact. However, it is the deer in western Eurasia that are genetically distinct enough from those of eastern Eurasia and North America to be classified as a separate species.

Although at one time Red Deer were rare in some areas, they were never close to extinction. Reintroduction and conservation efforts, especially in North America and in the United Kingdom, have resulted in an increase of Red Deer populations, while other areas such as north Africa and central Asia, continue to show a population decline.

Early European explorers to North America, that had seen smaller Red Deer in Europe, believed that the North American subspecies looked like an Elk, which is the common word in Europe for what North Americans call a moose. The renaming has become part of the common vocabulary of North Americans. To add further confusion, North Americans also use the word "Wapiti", which is from the Native American word used by the Shawnee who referred to the animal as waapiti, or "white rump".

Biology

Appearance

The Red Deer is a large ungulate (hoofed animal) and is a ruminant, eating their food in two stages and having an even number of toes on each hoof, similar to camels, goats and cattle. There is a wide difference in appearance between the various subspecies of Red Deer, with the smallest being those found in Europe and the largest being the Roosevelt Elk found west of the Cascade Range in the U.S. states of California, Oregon and Washington. The Roosevelt Elk males have also been transplanted into sections of Alaska, where they have been recorded as weighing up to 591 kilograms (1,300 lbs).^[1]

Generally, the average male (stag) Red Deer of Europe is 1.2 meters (4 ft) tall and weighs 295 kilograms (650 lbs). European Red Deer tend to be more reddish in color than North American counterparts and there is a greater size difference between the European males and females. The European female (hind) Red Deer usually have little or no darker "mane" hair feature on their necks, whereby both male and female North American elk have thicker hair around their entire necks. North American elk are generally larger in both height and weight than European counterparts. This difference in size is generally due to adaptation to environmental pressures. The European Red Deer is better adapted to a woodland environment, while the central Asian Red Deer and North American elk generally live in a more open woodland and grassland environment.^[2] All Red Deer subspecies are between 2.1 and 2.4 meters (7 to 8 ft) in length from nose to tail.

Only the stags have antlers which start growing in the spring and are shed each year, usually at the end of winter. The largest antlers may be as much as 1.2 meters (4 ft) long and weigh 18 kilograms (40 lbs).^[3] Antlers are made of bone which can grow at a rate of 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) a day and a soft covering known as velvet helps to protect newly forming antlers in the spring. Adult Red Deer may have 6 or more tines (finger-like extensions) on each antler, however the number of tines has little to do with the age or maturity of a particular specimen. The antlers are testosterone driven and as their testosterone levels drop in the fall, the velvet is shed and the antlers stop growing.^[4]

During the fall, all Red Deer subspecies grow a thicker coat of hair which helps to insulate them during the winter. By the time summer begins, the heavy winter coat has been shed, and Red Deer are known to rub against trees and other objects to help remove hair from their bodies.

Behavior

Adult Red Deer usually stay in single-sex groups for most of the year. During the mating ritual, called the rut, mature stags compete for the attentions of the hinds and will then try to defend hinds that they attract. Rival stags challenge opponents by bellowing and walking in parallel. This allows combatants to assess each other's antlers, body size and fighting prowess. If neither stag backs down a clash of antlers can occur, and stags sometimes sustain serious injuries.^[5]

Dominant stags follow groups of hinds during the rut, from August into early winter. The stags may have as many as 20 hinds to keep from other less attractive males.^[6] Only mature stags hold harems (groups of hinds) and breeding success peaks at about 8 years of age. Stags 2-4 years old rarely hold harems and spend most of the rut on the periphery of larger harems, as do stags over 11 years old. Young and old stags that do acquire a harem hold it later in the breeding season than those stags in their prime. Harem holding stags rarely feed and lose up to 20% of their body weight. Stags that enter the rut in poor condition are less likely to make it through to the peak conception period.^[5]

Male Red Deer have distinctive "bugling" which can be heard for miles, and is used to keep his harem of females together. The females are initially attracted to those males that both bugle most often and have the loudest bugle call. Males also use the bugle call when competing with other males for females during the rut, and along with other forms of posturing and antler fights, is a method used by the males to establish dominance.^[2] Bugling is most common during the early dawn and late evening.

Breeding, gestation and lifespan

Red Deer mating patterns usually involve a dozen of more mating attempts before the first successful one. There may be several more matings before the stag will seek out another mate in his harem. Females in their second autumn can produce one and very rarely two offspring per year. The gestation period is 240 and 262 days and the offspring weigh between 15 and 16 kilograms (33 to 35 lbs). After two weeks, calves are able to join the herd and are fully weaned after two months.^[7] Female offspring outnumber male offspring more than two to one and all Red Deer calves are born spotted, as is common with many deer species, and lose their spots by the end of summer. The offspring will remain with their mothers for almost one full year, leaving around the time that the next season offspring are produced.^[2] The gestation period is the same for all subspecies.

Elk and Red Deer live up to over 20 years in captivity and average 10 to 13 years in the wild, though some subspecies that have less predation pressure average 15 years.^[8]

DNA studies on Red Deer subspecies

Currently, biologists are in disagreement as to the number of different subspecies of Red Deer worldwide, with sources suggesting as many as 22 or as few as 7. Due to the diverse ecozones in which Red Deer have adapted, the number of subspecies of Red Deer would trend toward a higher number due to isolation and adaptation to specific environments which over time, may influence the appearance and behavioral characteristics of a given group to an extent that chance crossbreeding is reduced due to differences in breeding behavior between distinct subspecies.

Biologists have until recently stated that Red Deer and Elk are the same species, based on fertile hybrids that have been produced under captive conditions. Animal behavior is generally different in captivity than in the wild, and the assumption that the same results would happen in the wild as in captivity is a bad test methodology to determine speciation. Recent DNA studies conducted on hundreds of Red Deer and Elk subspecies determined that there are two distinct species of Red Deer and divides them into an eastern and a western species grouping. The western species (Red Deer) includes those deer that are found in Europe and western sections of Asia and includes only four subspecies. The eastern species (Elk/Wapiti) range from eastern Asia into North America and consists of three subspecies. Another one or two "primordial subspecies" may exist in central Asia, according to the study. Altogether, the study concluded that not more than 9 distinct subspecies of Red Deer exist and that the eastern and western groups should be considered to be two separate species.^[9]

Protection from predators

Male Red Deer retain their antlers for more than half the year and are more gregarious and less likely to group with other males when they have antlers. The antlers provide self defense as does a strong front-leg kicking action which is performed by both sexes when attacked. Once the antlers are shed, stags tend to form bachelor groups which allow them to cooperatively work together. Herds tend to have one or more members watching for potential danger while the remaining members eat and rest.^[2]

After the rut, females form large herds of up to 50 individuals. The newborn calves are kept close to the hinds by a series of vocalizations between the two, and larger nurseries have an ongoing and constant chatter during the daytime hours. When approached by predators, the largest and most robust females may make a stand, using their front legs to kick at their attackers. Guttural grunts and posturing is used with all but the most determined of predators with great effectiveness. Aside from man, Wolf and coyote packs and the solitary Mountain lion, are the most dangerous of predators that most Red Deer encounter. Occasionally, the Brown bear, grizzly and the black bear will predate on elk as well.^[2]

Distribution

Cervus genus ancestors of Red Deer first appear in fossil records 12 million years ago during the Pliocene in Eurasia but do not appear in the North American fossil records until about 12,000 years ago, when they crossed the Bering land bridge.^[10][11] The appearances of the North American and central Asian Red Deer are more similar than either is to Red Deer found in northern Europe or Africa.

Over time, several groups of elk in North America became isolated from one another, forming distinct behavioral characteristics to suit the environment. Over predation of many elk brought the eastern variety of elk (Cervus elaphus canadensis) to extinction, and the Merriam's elk of the southwestern U.S. and Mexico eventually succumbed to extinction around 1900.^[12] In the early 1900s concerned sportsmen foresaw the eventual demise of many game animals and sought, and implemented, hunting seasons and limits, which saved many species which would have otherwise perished.

Red Deer is one of the largest game animals found in Asia, Europe and North America. They live in open forest and near forest boundaries in similar environment as deer species such as the Mule and White-tailed Deers. In mountainous regions, they are known to inhabit high elevations during the summer, and in winter they gather at lower altitudes.

Widespread in taiga, temperate forests and grassland, the Red Deer of southern Siberia and Central Asia are restricted to the higher elevations of the mountain ranges west of Lake Baikal such as the Sayan Mountains and Altai Mountains of Mongolia and the Tianshan Mountain region that border Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and China's Xinjiang Province.^[13] In Europe, The Red Deer is the largest non domesticated mammal still existing in some countries such as the United Kingdom and Ireland.^[10] An extinct species, known as the Irish Elk (Megaloceros) was not an elk at all, but simply the largest member of the deer family known from the fossil record.^[14]

Red Deer are found throughout North America, especially in the Rocky Mountain region. Reintroduced Red Deer in Appalachian region of the eastern United States where the now extinct subspecies Eastern elk Cervus elaphus canadensis once lived, have dispersed from Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee, into the neighboring states of Virginia and West Virginia, and these herds appear to be growing steadily in population.^[15]

The Red Deer is the only member of the deer family that is represented in Africa, with population centered in the northwestern region of the continent in the Atlas Mountains.^[5] As of the mid 1990s, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria were the only African countries known to have Red Deer.^[16]

Migration

Red Deer in Europe generally spend their winters in lower altitudes and more wooded terrain. During the summer, they migrate to higher elevations where food supplies are greater for the calving season. Asiatic Red Deer also tend to follow the melting snows to higher altitudes in the spring and return to lower elevations for the winter months.

In North America, Elk migration is similar to that elsewhere in the world. Elk migration in the lower 48 states of the United States has been, for many decades, the largest migration of mammals remaining since the near extermination of the Bison in the late 1800s. What is known as the Yellowstone herd numbers up to 10,000 individuals. Each fall, the elk in Montana and Idaho as well as northern Wyoming begin a migration that has been a seasonal occurrence for thousands of years. Prior to the establishment of the town of Jackson, Wyoming, the herd would migrate south through Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks as well as surrounding National Forests through where the town of Jackson now resides and into grasslands more than 160 kilometers (100 miles) to the south. However, since the town now impedes this natural migration route, most of the herd spends the winter at a much higher altitude than they historically did. Just outside the town limits, the National Elk Refuge was established, and conservationists there ensure the herd is well fed during the harsh winters.^[17]

Health issues

Brainworm (Parelaphostrongylus tenuis) is a parasitic nematode that has been known to affect the spinal cord and brain tissue of elk, leading to death. The nematode has a carrier in the White-tailed Deer, in which it usually has no ill effect, but is deposited in snails which are inadvertently consumed during grazing.^[18] Chronic Wasting Disease, a disease that effects the brain tissue in elk, has been detected throughout the range in North America. First documented in the late 1960s in Mule Deer, the elk effected have been on game farms and in the wild in a number of regions. Elk that have contracted the disease begin to show weight loss, increased watering needs, disorientation, listlessness, and at an advanced stage leads to death. The disease is similar to, but not the same as Mad Cow Disease and no side effects to humans have been documented, nor has the disease been demonstrated to pose a threat to domesticated cattle.^[19] Brucellosis is another disease that occasionally affect Red Deer in North America, but is much more common in Bison.

Red Deer in folklore

The elk is an important totem animal to many American Indian tribes. Among the Oto people Elk is described as cross-dressing in several origin legends and is considered to be the original two-spirit; consequently, two-spirits in this culture always belong to the Elk clan. Black Elk is the name of a famous Lakota shaman.

References cited

Additional reading

• Geist, Valerius [1998-10-01]. Deer of the World. Stackpole Books. ISBN 0-8117-0496-3.

• Cervus elaphus (TSN 180695). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 23 March 2006.