Fallow Deer - Dama dama

Fallow deer have many colour varieties but they are typically fawn-coloured in the summer and reddish-brown in the winter. They have yellow-white undersides, white spots and a black line that runs along the back to the tip of the tail. The spots become less conspicuous or disappear in winter. Males have palmate (flattened) antlers.

Favours wooded areas, but sometimes on farmland in summer months.

All year round

Life span up to 16 years. Prefers to live in medium sized herds. Young are born in the spring The 'rut' occurs in October.

Introduced from Europe by the Normans and now well established in many parts of Britain and Ireland.

In Leicestershire and Rutland there are park herds at Donnington and Bradgate and there are locally common feral populations in north-west Leicestershire and nort-east Rutland.