Our animals

Roe

The roe(Capreolus capreolus) is the smallest animal in Latvia of the deer family. Following data from the year 2002 their population cocsists of 79,7 thousands animals.

The body of the roe is lank, the legs are long. The head is small, cuneiform, with quite big ears. Good hearing and sense of smell. The fur is quite rough and is auburn during summer without lanugo, but is reddish grey or brown grey during winter.

The weight is 20-30kg (sometimes 40kg). Roebucks are a bit bigger than the does. There is a white spot round the tail – the “mirror”, which they use to signal with in emergency cases.

Deer heads are internationally recognised hunting trophy. The best deer head hunted in Latvia was rated with 188,70 CIC points.

The first deer heads get the roebucks without branching, they are stack like and start to grow in September-October. They stop growing during winter and continue in summer. The first deer heads are discarded at the age of 1,5 years in November-December. In the following years the deer heads of the roebucks start growing in January-February, ossify, they get rubbed off and than discarded in October-November. Roebuck have the most developed deer heads when they are 4-8 years old. Deer heads of roebucks are branched, can be 30cm long and weigh 500g.

Life duration: 10-12(sometimes 16) years.

Roes are a limited polygamous race. Rutting season is July-August (in some cases November-December). During the rutting season one hears barking and beeping. The pregnancy lasts 270-280 days (including the latent development period of the embryo). The hatchlings (1-2) are born in May-June next year. Until the age of 4 month they have a ginger fur with longish yellow stripes. Young roes are ready to propagate when they are 1 year old, roebucks- 2, 3 year old.

Roes are herbivores. Their basic food are herbs, leafs of trees and bushes, saplings, various economic plants. They like verdure in the late autumn and in spring. In winter they eat berries, small branches of trees and shrubs, crowns of little firs and pines. They can be fed with hay, brunch brooms, carrots, cabbage.

Roes stay in different kinds of forests with glades, saplings, brushwood, which border with agricultural land.

Roes like warm, windless places; they try to free their lair from herbs, moss and snow to economise heat energy.

FALLOW DEER

Only in the year 1800. fallow deers (Dama dama) came again in the regions they originally inhabited. They remained preserved only because of rich German men, because they breeded fallow deers in their game gardens. It is accepted that they immigrated out small Asia. In Latvia this kind of deer is not living in free nature.

Fallow deers get fast used to the environment. They have very well developed sensory organs. They are widely bred in parks. The bodyhairs are reddish brown with white marks. The weight a fallow deer bull reaches on the average is 75-80 kg. Similarly as with the red deer also the fallow deer throws each year its antlers off and new ones grow in the next season. Antlers have a characteristic blade shape. The mating time begins in October November.

MOUFLON

Mouflons (ovis musimon) are wild relatives of sheep. In the opinion of zoologists mufflons lived in Europe already before the ice age. Today's mufflons descend from their ancestors in Sardinia and Corsica. They were brought from the island to the continent and bred. Mainly mufflons were bred by noble ones for the hunt. So e.g. prince Eugen has brought mouflons to Austria in the year 1730. There they where held in the game garden of lock Belvedere. Only in the year 1902 the animals came Germany. Mouflons are very watchful, persistent and modest animals. The meat of mouflons has outstanding characteristics. A Mouflon bull becomes up to 40kg heavy. It has very strong and relatively large horns, which are also called snails, because their form is similar to snail-shells.

RED DEER

The Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) is a big and very cautious animal with very well developed hearing and smelling. The color of the pelt is in different tones of redbrown, in winter it is greyisch. Around the tail there is the characteristic mirror, which is in a tone of grey or yellow and the border is in a dark russet color. On the neck of the bulls develops the so called mane, prolonged waved hairs of the length of 10-15cm. The pelt is changed twice a year: adult bulls, second year bulls and infertile cows change their pelt in spring from march till may, one year old bulls and pregnant cows change their pelt in june. In autumn the pelt change is less visible and it happens from the end of august till mid october. The weight of an adult bull can reach 185-200kg (sometimes even 300kg), cows get 110-150kg heavy. Cows are fully grown at the age of 4 years, bulls at the age of 7-8 years. Lifespan reaches from 14-16 years, maximum age is about 20 years.

The proudness of a Red Deer are his horns. The bulls regulary throw their wonderful horns and then new horns grow. The first hornbase grows at the age of 7-8 month - in november, december. It stays under the skin till the spring next year, when the bull is 12-14 month old and the first horns grow. At the end of summer the new horns harden and the deer rubs the horns to get them finished. The first horns are thrown in the third spring after the birth - mostly in april. In the third year the bull throws of the horns including the rosette. Afterwards the horns are thrown of each year from february till april. New horns with a velvetlike surface grow till july (in 120-140 days). In begining of august the horns ossify and the bull rubs the horns against trees and bushes to get the soft skin of the horns. At first the horns are in a bright color, but as the horns get rubbed against trees the color gets darker. A real beauty the horns reach at the age of 6-7 years. The horns of in nature living deers can get 10-16 embranchments and their weight can reach 9-10 kg. The horns will grow perfectly if the deer will have good genes, strong health, optimal living conditions, as well as enough good and varied nutrition. The horns of deer are judged as trophies according to defined rules. The biggest Red Deer horns can be seen in the hunting palace in Morizburg near Dresden in Germany. The weight of those horns is 19.86 kg, they have 24 embranchments and they were rated with 298.61 CIC points. This historical trophy is already older than 300 years.

The Red Deer is a polygamous animal. During the heat the strongest bulls (2-4) geather 15-20 cows and form a harem. The heat begins in september-october and in this time one can hear the bellow of the deers. The bellow gets louder and more intense in clear nights with moonlight. During the heat bulls are fighting to protect their cows. Those fights can sometimes end deadly. During the heat bulls are not eating. Each bull is heating for 2-2.5 weeks. All the heat is lasting for 5-6 weeks.

The pregnancy of cows lasts for 240 days. In the end of may, early june, the cows leave the herd to breed.  Most often each cow breeds one calf, very seldom two. As soon as the calf can follow his mother by himselft, cow and his calf return to the herd. New cows take part in the heat in their second or third year of life. Bulls instead can take part in heating only starting with their third life year.

Red Deer is a typical vegetarian. They eat 220 different plants. The major food consists of caulescent plants- corngrasses, fruits and seminals, new branches of trees and leaves. In winter they eat small bushes, tree branches, peels, new needle tree branches and berrybushes. They also like to eat hay, dried leaves, rootcrops as well as oats, wheat or peas. In summer a deer needs 10-12 (at maximum 30) kg food, in winter 1.5-6 kg. In it's possible the deers should be fed with salt in winter.