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Sunday 28 September 2014

Deer

Very protective towards his royal deer, the punishment for merely disturbing King William the Conqueror's stags was blinding. "Anyone who killed a hart or a hind was to be blinded... He loved the stags as clearly as though he had been their father ." said  The Peterborough Chronicler, regarding the death of the monarch.


Deer in the Czech Republic don’t cross into Germany, following the example of parents who learned to avoid the electrified fence there during the Cold War.

Deer can abort a pregnancy if there is not enough food to support the deer population. She absorbs the fetus back into her system, or she can hold off giving birth until there are the right conditions.

Only male deer have antlers.The antlers are deciduous, and drop off after the mating season. Their main use is for males to fight for groups of females during the rutting season.

While an antler is growing, it is covered with highly vascular skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone. The antler grows faster than any other mammal bone.


Deer have four-chambered stomachs, which help them digest their plant-based food.

A deer's eyes are more sensitive to light than a human's. So when a deer is suddenly struck by the beam of a car’s headlights, its fully dilated pupils become blinded by the abundance of light, so it cannot see at all. This is why the deer just stands still in front of the vehicle.

When a baby deer, known as a fawn, is born, they are on their feet in 20 minutes.

Fawns are often left alone for hours while their mothers forage for food. Sometimes well meaning people ‘kidnap’ the fawn thinking it’s abandoned when it’s really just waiting for its mom.

Deer mothers will instinctively come to the rescue of a crying human baby.  She will bound at top speed toward the distress call as though to her own fawn in distress.

When deer become startled and flee in a group, they don't collide because an inner compass points them all in a certain direction.

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