The roe deer belongs to a group of hip-hoofed deer family. It got its name from - for the resemblance to a goat. Its name is translated from Latin as wild goat.
The animal with a short body. The front part of the body is thinner than the back part. She weighs about 30 kg of roe deer. The body length is about 120 cm. The head of the roe deer is wide in the eye area and narrowed to the nose.
Sharpened ears are quite long. Large eyes with obliquely convex pupils. Long, thin legs end with short hooves. The small tail is not visible under the hair. Horns are mostly male. They are not large, branchy.
In spring and summer the animal is red, in winter - gray. In Germany, roe deer live in black at any time of year. There are different opinions of scientists on the number of roe deer species, most of them are of the opinion on the main 4 species:
European roe deer;
Siberian roe deer;
Manchurian roe deer;
Sichuan roe deer.
They differ in location, weight and body length. Animals feed on plants, most of which are herbs and branches of trees (birch, aspen, linden, poplar, mountain ash). They can also eat fern, mosses and mushrooms. They drink water from water sources (rivers, swamps, lakes) and eat snow in winter. They consume up to 1.5 litres of liquid per day. In winter, they eat the bark of trees, dig up to one meter of snow cover and find dry grass and mosses.
Roe deer are solitary animals. In summer they form small families consisting of a female (mother) and several deer. In winter, they are reduced to small flocks for more convenient search of food. Most roe deer have two babies each. Reindeer can walk at birth, but run badly, so the female is alone in a deaf place, where she feeds her children with her milk until they get stronger. They spend about 1.5 years with their mother. Roe deer live on average for about 10 years.
Roe deer have many enemies. Wolves, lynxes hunt for adult animals, foxes, wild dogs eat babies. But the main enemy of roe deer is a man who hunts animals because of delicious meat and beautiful deer horns. Many animals die under the wheels of motorists.
The main role in the life of roe deer have smells. The sense of smell is strongly developed in the animal. Males mark the area in order to limit access to other animals. The animal has its own language. 5 beeps are emitted by the animals: the mother whistles with the pups, the hissing is aggression, barking is anxiety, moaning is disease or wounding a roe deer.
Roe deer are the oldest deer on Earth. Archaeologists find the remains of similar animals inhabiting more than 40 million years.
Roe deer (or wild goat) is a member of the deer family, a group of mammals. It has an elegant body, weighs no more than 60 kg, and is 80 centimeters tall (on average) in the hills. According to archaeologists, the first roe deer appeared more than 40 million years ago.
Appearance
The color of the roe deer changes depending on the season. The animal becomes grey in winter and brownish in summer. The roe deer's hind legs are longer than the front legs - this helps her to jump up to 6 meters high. During the jump, wild goats look very graceful. The roe deer has a tail, but it is so short that it is not visible behind the fur layer. The eyes of roe deer are large, convex. Horns in these animals are small, with three processes, but only male animals have them. The female is also relatively smaller than the male.
Habitat area
Roe deer live in the Northern Hemisphere - Russia, America, Europe. Animals prefer rare woodlands, meadows with high grasses and shrubs. But nowadays these landscapes are mastered by humans for household needs, so roe deer often have to retreat to the woods. In various mixed and deciduous forests, this graceful reindeer representative can live, except for the taiga dark conifers.
Nutrition
The roe deer eats herbs, berries, bushes. Especially prefers horsetails, ivy. From berries - blueberries, cowberries, strawberries, sea buckthorn. Also wild goats eat acorns, cereals, chestnuts. In winter, when all the green grass is covered with a layer of snow, roe deer can dig it up a little bit, eat a towering rag and sometimes does not even shine the bark of trees.
Lifestyle of roe deer
The roe deer itself is an energetic animal, but it's not easy to see it. A roe deer goes out into the open (without shrubs and tall grasses) mainly in the early morning or late evening. Also, the wild goat often drinks and is therefore near water bodies.
Roe deer lead a sedentary way of life, getting into groups and occupying small areas. In spring and autumn they travel several tens of kilometers to find food.
Female roe deer brings from 1 to 3 calves, which are fed for 3 months. Pregnancy lasts 9-10 months.
The average life expectancy of wild goats is 11-12 years, although some individuals have lived to 16 years.
