Iberian Red Deer

T

he Iberian Deer is considered a different subspecies than that which inhabits Central Europe, Scotland, Corsica and Sardinia.

The deer is the second largest European cervus, immediately after the moose. The weight of the males varies according to regions, reaching 250 kg in the Iberian Peninsula, while females can reach 150kg. The deer has reddish brown fur during the summer and a darker brown shade in the winter. The fawns have white dorsal spots up to the 2 months of age, which favor camouflage in the vegetation. Two characters differentiate the deer from other cervus: the tail and the anal shield. The tail is short, brownish and without shades of black. The anal shield, characteristic of deers, is usually lighter.

Like almost all the males of the Cervidae species, deers have antlers. Antlers are formations of bone nature at the level of the skull, which fall every year after the breeding season. The antlers, while growing, are covered by an epidermis called velvet extremely rich in blood vessels that protects and irrigates the developing antler. When the antlers reach the final size for that year, the blood vessel network dries up, the velvet falls off, and the bone part is exposed. After the reproduction season, the antlers fall off, but after a few weeks a new annual growth cycle begins. Generally, the antlers increase in size and in number of tips within the antler each year that passes, and this development is conditioned more by the quality of the food than the individual's age. Genetic factors are also involved in this process.