5 December: Deer

In the French Revolutionary Calendar, 5 December was the Day of Roe Deer. 10 things you might not know about deer:

1. The roe deer is just one of over 60 species of deer on the planet, and they’re found everywhere except Antarctica. They vary considerably in size from the largest, the moose, which can reach 2.6 metres (8.5 ft) in height and up to 800 kilograms (1,800 lb) in weight, to the smallest, the northern pudu which reaches just 32–35 centimetres (13–14 in) and weighs 3.3–6 kilograms (7.3–13.2 lb).
2. The word deer is derived from the Old English word dēor, which meant a wild animal of any kind. Some deer related words: cervine means deer-like and comes from the family name, Cervidae. A male deer may be a buck, a bull or a stag, depending on its size and species; the female is a doe or a cow and the young a fawn, a kid or a calf. A group of deer is a herd. Hart for a male and hind for a female are old words. A castrated male deer is a havier.
3. Deer are the only animals on Earth which have antlers. In most species, only the males have them, with the exception of Reindeer, where the females have antlers too. Chinese water deer are another exception – they don’t have antlers at all but have long canine teeth instead. Antlers fall off and regrow every year. As antlers regrow, they are covered in a furry coat called velvet, which is rich in nerves and blood vessels, allowing the antlers to regrow quickly. Antlers are actually the fastest growing living tissue on the planet. Their function? To allow males to compete for the right to mate. They fight by locking antlers which minimises injury to their faces.
4. Deer have been important to the human race since pre-history, most often as a source of food. Venison is a highly nutritious meat. Hence they have appeared in art since Paleolithic times. The Lascaux cave paintings in France include about 90 pictures of stags.
5. They often turn up in heraldry, too, and there’s a whole terminology related to deer in coats of arms. Here, a stag is a male red deer and a buck is a male fallow deer. "Lodged" means the deer is lying down, "trippant" means it has one leg raised, "courant" means it is running, "springing" means it is jumping, "statant" means it is standing with all hooves on the ground and looking ahead. If it is standing and looking at the viewer, it is said to be "at gaze". If just the head appears on the coat of arms the word for that is "caboshed".
6. In literature, they appear in ancient epics and Aesop's fables, and also in the Rigveda and the Bible. In more recent stories, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe features the adult Pevensies, now kings and queens of Narnia, chasing the White Stag, as it is said to grant a wish to anyone who can catch it. This allows Pevensies to return home. Baron Munchausen uses cherry stones to shoot at a deer because he’s out of bullets but the deer escapes, and the following year, he knows he’s met the same deer again, because it has a cherry tree growing out of its head. The most famous fictional deer, though, has to be Bambi. Bambi is a white-tailed deer in the Disney film, although in the book it was based on, he is a roe deer.
7. They have excellent hearing, since their ears have an abundance of muscles allowing them to turn their ears in any direction without moving their heads. They can also hear higher frequencies of sound than we can. Their sense of smell is good, too, and they lick their noses to help odour particles stick to them. Because their eyes are on the sides of their heads their vision is 310 degrees, although there’s a downside – it’s hard for a deer to focus on a single point. Their night vision is very good, too.
8. They are ruminants, like Cows and they have a four chamber stomach which allows them to chew the cud. They eat more easily digestible food than cows, though, going for new shoots, young leaves, fruit and fungi.
9. When a fawn is born, it has fur covered in White spots, but most species lose these as the fawn grows. A doe typically gives birth to one or two fawns, and triplets only rarely. She will lick her newborn clean so it has no scent for a predator to pick up. The fawn takes its first steps within 20 minutes of birth but it takes about a week for it to be strong enough to follow its mother as she grazes. For the first week, the mother will discourage it from trying to follow her and leave it hidden in grass. Male deer play no part in caring for the young.
10. The name Oscar comes from the Irish Language, where it is derived from os, meaning "deer" and cara, meaning "friend".

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