Animals in the wild Immersed in nature

The real name of the European fallow deer is Dama dama. It looks just like Disney’s Bambi, but this one is the son of a white-tailed deer. A fawn. The fallow deer is much smaller than a stag. The male measures just under a metre at the withers and weighs between 60 and 90 kilos wet, while the female measures barely 80 centimetres and weighs between 30 and 50 kilos. Its small size does not prevent the male from sporting magnificent flat, webbed antlers like those of the elk. It’s also a hardy fellow that doesn’t shy away from anything. If need be, it won’t hesitate to challenge a stag four times its weight. In the past, fallow deer frolicked all over Europe, as well as in Asia Minor during the last ice age. The fallow deer found itself in dire straits and had to take refuge in corners of ...

Of all the deer, the elk is the largest and most imposing. The males can measure more than two meters at the withers for a weight exceeding 600 kg. That is more than a thoroughbred horse! As for the antlers, it is a real forest weighing up to 20 kilos. Today, the elk still lives in the wild in Scandinavia, the Baltic States and northern Russia. But its range was originally much wider than that. It circulated in a good part of Europe and France was no exception. Agricultural expansion and hunting have over the years pushed it northwards where it has found its last refuge. The last French elks were killed in the bay of the Seine and in Alsace around the 11th century.  

The Red Deer, emblematic animal, symbol of power for some, of nobility for others, has been present in European forests for 250,000 years. Its numbers have fluctuated with the rhythm of the ice ages and are currently estimated, in France, at 150,000 individuals. However, it remains difficult to observe. The Red Deer loses its antlers yearly, at the end of winter or at the very beginning of spring, and wears a new set every summer.

A modern species par excellence, the roe deer is a small, discreet cervid. Its small size gives it easy access to any territory. A forest animal, over the last twenty years or so it has tended to occupy open areas where humans tolerate its presence as long as ‘damage’ is limited. It rarely weighs more than 30 kg and is rarely more than 6 or 7 years old. This discreet ungulate lives in small numbers in the Reserve. They tend to live in the bushy, bramble-rich areas that the deer neglect. In fact, roe deer do not appreciate the presence of stags or hinds and unfortunately refuse to share the same pastures. Male roe deer, known as brocades until they are 1 year old and as roe deer from their second year, have small deciduous antlers on their heads. As with the stag, its first antlers are called daggers. Unlike deer, ...