Drive Thru Safari - Fallow Deer

The name fallow is derived from the deer's pale brown colour. The Latin word dāma or damma, used for roe deer, gazelles, and antelopes, lies at the root of the modern scientific name, as well as the German Damhirsch, French daim, Dutch damhert, and Italian daino. In Croatian and Serbian, the name for the fallow deer is jelen lopatar ("shovel deer"), due to the form of its antlers.

Males, which are known as bucks, are larger and heavier in size than the females, or does. The bucks tend to have larger more muscular necks than the females. Bucks also carry antlers, which the does do not.

The antlers grow afresh each year. They are lost or cast in March or April, and a new set begins to grow straight away. The antlers reach there full size by about August, when velvet shedding occurs, and they are ready to use in the mating season about a month later.

The antlers in the Fallow Deer are impressive. Unlike most other deer, the antlers of the Fallow Deer are broad and flattened, being rather palmate in shape. During and shortly after the last ice age Fallow Deer were found in North Africa, Asia Minor and parts of the Middle East and Balkans. However early hunting by man soon reduced the range of this species until they were found only in Asia Minor. Ancient sailors such as the Phoenicians introduced Dama dama to new locations around the Mediterranean and increased its range. The Romans continued this process. Later still, nobles stocked their hunting estates with Fallow Deer and further increased its range during the Middle Ages. In Victorian times it became a popular parkland animal of rich gentry.