The cervidae family.

Part two the roe deer.

The roe deer is Britain's smallest indigenous deer. They are mainly found in woodlands,grassland and on moors. They feed mainly on tree shoots and shrubs, and can sometimes be seen feeding with muntjac deer. The male roe deer is called a buck, the female is called a doe and the young are killed kids. The roe deer rut isn`t the spectacular affair of the fallow,sika or red deer ruts.During early summer the males will clash over their territory, this is much earlier than any other deer. The males will rarely fight. When the males and the females finally come together  they end up in whats called a roe ring, its then up to the female as to when they finally mate. This is when they go round in circles and flatten all of the vegetation in a figure of eight. The roe deer has virtually no tail and are a lovely fox red colour with a buff patch on its rump,this changes to white in winter. The doe has a long tuft of hair  hanging on her rump. The roe deers coat changes to a greyish colour during winter.They are the only British deer to have antlers clean of velvet when they grow again around January. Their antlers are cast in October or November, they have on them whats called a purlong, this is used to scrape against a bark stripped tree to mark a territory, as in between his antlers he has a scent gland.  The purlong is along the inside and the outside of his antlers, the male normally has three points on  his antlers. The roe deer kids are born singly in June with white spots on them, the hind will have up to three and its not un-common for the hind to give birth to twins. The roe deer is the only British hoofed mammal in which implantation of the egg is delayed. The implantation of the fertilized egg occurs in December. At first the hind will leave her kids in long grass for long periods during the day. This is mainly for protection as they are quite small and frail on their feet. The buck is about seventy five centimeters tall at the shoulder with the doe being about seventy centimeters tall. The buck weighs about twenty five kilograms. They make a short barking noise when they are calling out.