It is known that the life span of roe deer is on average about fifteen years. The approximate age of this animal can be determined by some external signs. For example, a young individual has a slender long neck, a vigorous tread and a raised head. The old male has a thicker neck, a heavier body and a slightly bowed head, as well as clumsy and slow movements. In a slaughtered animal, the exact age can be recognized only by the lower jaw, and the approximate age can be found by cranial sutures and the thickness of the outgrowths. It is known that the animal is older, the molars are more worn out, etc. There is another way to determine the age of the animal - by the horns.
What kind of horns does a roe deer have and when does it drop them? And how to determine age from them? The answers to these questions can be found in this article, having got acquainted with the information presented in it.
Bit of history
The roots of the genus Capreolus Gray lead to the Miocene muntzhaks belonging to the subfamily Cervulinae. In the Upper Miocene – Lower Pliocene period, a group of forms that were similar in some respects to modern roe deer (the genus Procapreolus Schloss) already lived in Europe and Asia. Closer to them is the genus Pliocervus Hilzh (Middle Pliocene).
The genus Capreolus dates back to approximately the Upper Pliocene or the Lower Pleistocene, and the existence of the species Capreolus capreolus (European roe deer) at the end of the Ice Age has been reliably established.
Habitat
In the relatively recent past, the habitat of the roe deer (the photo of the animal is presented in the article) in temperate latitudes was continuous. The zone of the greatest abundance of this animal covers areas with a depth of snow not exceeding ten to twenty centimeters. In connection with predatory extermination in the years before the revolution, the habitat of these animals fell apart. Only as a result of certain measures, the roe deer in recent years again began to populate areas where it has been absent for several decades.
Today this animal inhabits the territories of European countries up to Scandinavia and the Gulf of Finland. Roe deer inhabit the vast expanses of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic republics. Crimea, the Urals, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Tien Shan and Altai, Siberia, Korea, Northern Mongolia and northeastern China are also the natural habitat of this animal.
Although it covers the habitat of roe deer for vast territories, their ubiquitous (continuous) settlement in these parts is not observed. Where roe deer live, extensive forest-steppes and deciduous light forests with large clearings covered with dense grass extend. Under the influence of an active human attack on the forest-steppe regions (both in Europe and in most regions of Asia), as well as in connection with the occupation of vast lands for agricultural land, roe deer began to be pushed further and further into mixed forests (except for taiga zones).
On the territory of the southern borders of the range, roe deer have taken root well in mountain forests, in reed and shrubbery, in lake reeds and forest plantations, on farmland fields, and so on.
Description
The second name of the roe deer is a wild goat. The animal has a relatively short body, with its rear part slightly higher and thicker than the front. An adult male reaches 32 kilograms at a height of up to 126 centimeters. The average height at the withers is 66-81 cm. The female roe deer is smaller than the male, and sexual dimorphism is weakly expressed.
The head of the roe deer has a short and wedge-shaped, narrowed in the direction of the nose shape. Oval-shaped long ears have a noticeable sharpening. Large eyes are slightly convex and have oblique pupils. The legs of the animal are long and thin, with short and narrow hooves.
The color of roe deer wool (photo of the animal is presented in the article) is different in summer and winter. In the warm season, its coat color can be from gray to reddish-brown, and in the cold - brownish-gray. The lower body is usually lighter than the upper. In addition to the usual painted roe deer, black, white and mottled are sometimes found.
Life span
In vivo, roe deer have a lifespan of about fifteen years, as noted above, but hardly any of them can reach this age in the wild.
Even the most experienced and cautious animals are likely to die for a variety of reasons. To a greater extent, they are shot by hunters and do not even live to half the maximum age.
More about horns
Roe horns are divided into two types according to their structure:
- Horns of a European look. In size, they are small (usually equal to the length of the skull) and their trunks, located vertically, are directed almost parallel to each other. On such horns, usually no more than three processes. One of them (front) is directed forward, the second back, and the third, representing the end of the horn, up. At the bases are large rosettes (bone growths) with a complex surface, on which tubercles (pearls or pearls) are developed. The length of the horns is more than thirty centimeters.
- Deer horns of the Siberian type. In size, they are much larger (more than 45 centimeters). The horns are set wider and diverge more to the sides. Their vertices often bend inward towards each other, and the posterior processes at the ends bifurcate. The anterior processes are directed inward. In Siberian roes, rosettes are less developed, but wider than in European roes, and do not touch. Their tuberosity is less dense, but the tubercles are higher and larger (similar to processes). Each horn has three to five processes.
When do roes drop horns?
Roe deer, like deer, drop their horns during the winter. They develop in the following sequence. In male goat kids, the first horns appear in the first year of life, in the fall (October-November). These are low bone processes (“pipes”), covered with skin. By the spring of next year (April-May) they grow just above the ears and already represent unbranched thick “pins”, which, after peeling, become smooth and pointed (“rods”). The males wear them until December-January, after which the first horns fall away and only stumps overgrowing with skin remain on the skull.
After about two months (in the spring), the horns of young roe males again begin to grow, but larger and also covered in skin. They are fully formed by the summer and have already 2-3 processes. Around the middle of summer (the beginning of the rutting season), the horns are again cleared of “velvet”. and from the horns of adults, they differ only in a thinner rod and processes, as well as a poorly visible outlet. At the age of more than 2 years (November-December of the third year), the second horns are also discarded. And again, they remain hemp overgrown with skin, and again they form until the next year. The last horns no longer differ from the horns of older individuals. There is a cyclical shift annually, but the number of processes is no longer added. They only become more embossed. In old goats, a change in the shape of the horns and a decrease in their weight can be observed.
About the age of the animal
How to determine the age of the roe deer or sex by the horns? It is not difficult to determine the sex of the animal, especially in summer, since males have them during this period. And how to determine the age?
With this, things are slightly worse, although this is a rather important point in the use of roe deer for domestic purposes. In an animal that is more than two years old, the exact age is more difficult to determine, especially at a distance. And yet, roe horns are one of the most reliable indicators in determining its age. This is especially true for the height of the bases of the horns. Due to the fact that they are dumped annually, this indicator decreases every year.
In the case when the male’s horns are “planted” on the skull and covered with hair, this indicates that the individual is old. Another indicator of the male’s old age is the presence of processes on the horns. This is a sign that the horns are not the first. Adult individuals always have processes on the horns, and the rods of their horns are thick.
The age indicator is the discharge of horns. The first to be shed by adult males. In them, this happens about three weeks earlier than the new horns of young individuals grow and scrub off the skin. In addition to all this, in old animals horns are fully formed by the end of February, and in males of middle age - by about mid-March. In young individuals, in March, their development only begins.
Trophy Roe Horns
In addition to the skin and meat of the hunted beast, its horns are also valuable. Among the many trophy collections among hunters, the most valuable are exhibits of ungulates, including roe deer. Horns with skulls, and even obtained with their own hands, are the pride of every hunter. Most often, specialists make trophies. However, if desired, everyone can independently make a quality skull trophy.
Many products of roe deer horns adorn hunting rooms, however there are also people who collect horns and take part in various exhibitions. Before processing the trophy, the hunter must take care of him immediately, at the place of hunting.
Most often, people who do not have the necessary skills do the wrong thing and damage the skull and horns during transportation. There are internationally accepted trophy requirements.
How are graded?
Horns are one of the most significant trophies. However, each of the exhibits is unique and different in its qualities and characteristics. In this regard, the question arises: how to properly evaluate them? To this end, in 1952, in Madrid at the International Congress of Hunters, a methodology for assessing hunting trophies was adopted. In Copenhagen in 1955 at the International Hunting Council, some additions and changes were made to the methodology that was adopted earlier.
When scores of roe deer horns are scored, weight, thickness, length, number of shoots, color and other indicators are taken into account. Linear measurements are made in centimeters and millimeters, and weight - in grams and kilograms. The collapse and span of the horns are calculated by the ratio of the distance between them to the average value of the size of the right and left horns. Then the measurement values are multiplied by the coefficients set for each part. The maximum coefficient has an indicator of the mass of the horn. Information about the measurements obtained is recorded in a special trophy sheet, which indicates the data of the person who killed the beast, the date and place of prey, the total and net weight of the animal. The signature on the trophy sheet is put by all representatives of the commission evaluating the trophy, and the document is certified by the seal of the hunting farm where it was obtained.
Some interesting facts
The following are noteworthy:
- As a rule, each horn of an adult wild goat has no more than three processes. The animal acquires such horns in a rather short period of time, and its further exact age (after complete formation of the horns) is rather difficult to determine by the horns.
- Some individuals have an anomaly in the development of these processes. Roe antlers begin to develop at the age of 4 months. European females are usually hornless, but some are found with ugly horns.
- The tone of the color of the horns depends on the health of the animal and the food it takes, as well as on the species of the woody plant, on the trunk of which the roe deer peels the skin from its processes. For example, the tannin contained in the oak bark gives them a dark brown color.
- Horns of the same area, as a rule, are similar to each other. For example, all Central European age males have rather close corollas, often touching and preventing each other from developing. And on the other hand, the roe deer of Siberia (Altai) horns are very different from the Central European. Their corollas are much smaller, do not touch, and are even approximately five centimeters distant from each other, and the antlers themselves, having a bend characteristic of deer, reach a great length and branch in a peculiar way.
- There is some suggestion that the name of this animal is associated with the structure of its eyes, whose pupils are slanted, and the color is necessarily brown. The flirty eyes of the roe deer have long and fluffy upper eyelashes. Small lacrimal dimples are disproportionate and they are expressed by shallow six-millimeter hollows without wool in the shape of a triangle.
- For vague reasons, males sometimes grow abnormal horns that do not have processes. It is known that such individuals are very dangerous for their relatives, since during the ritual battles their horns can pierce the opponent through and through.
It is also important to note that roe deer is the oldest representative of deer. Archaeologists have found the remains of animals similar to them, belonging to individuals that lived on Earth about forty million years ago.
Finally
When determining the age of an animal by its horns, the following should be taken into account: the physical state of an individual has a rather strong influence on their formation. If it is at a sufficiently high level, then the development of horns will occur earlier, and this can create the appearance that the animal is much older than in reality.