Summer in a fallow deer park.

Fallow deer are a pleasure to watch at any season, and one of the best places to see them is in a deer park, particularly in late June when most of the fawns are old enough to gambol together in the cool of the evening. Fawns spend much of the day trotting after their mothers and grazing, but are suckled several times a day. Many does suckle their fawns into the new year. The bucks cast their antlers at any time from late March to early June. They spend summer in a bachelor group while new antlers are developing. When the antlers are fully grown, towards the end of August  for older bucks- the soft covering, or velvet, is cleaned off by rubbing them against trees until they are clean and hard, ready for rutting in autumn. In winter, many park deer are provided with extra food, usually hay, which is placed in racks, or root crops such as swede, which are spread on the ground. From two years old a doe normally bears a fawn every years for perhaps ten years or so, herd sizes increase rapidly. To prevent overcrowding and disease and the destruction of their habitat, the deer are regularly culled, bucks from August to April, does from November to February.Animals of different colour varieties interbreed. A fawn is not necessary the same colour as its parent.