Roe deer

Appearance

A small, graceful deer. The summer coat is reddish brown, the winter coat greyish brown. The tail is almost absent; the white rump patch is more conspicuous in winter. The nose is black with a white "moustache" below it.

The buck's antlers are short, usually with three tines per beam (a six-pointer). Antlers are cast in October–December and regrown by spring.

Extremely adaptable: it lives in closed forests, forest edges, scrub and open woodland, and also in large agricultural landscapes (field roe). It is common throughout almost all of Hungary.

Territorial in summer: bucks mark and defend territories. The rut runs from late July to mid-August. Implantation of the fertilised egg is delayed, so kids are born only in May–June of the following year, often as twins.

In winter roe gather in groups, especially in open farmland. It is a selective browser, feeding on buds, shoots, herbs and leaves.

• Track: narrow, pointed hoof print, 4–5 cm long.
• Droppings: small, shiny black pellets.
• Fraying: in spring the buck rubs the bark off thin saplings while cleaning antlers and marking territory.
• Scrapes: the buck scrapes the ground with its forelegs, mostly near fraying stocks.
• Roe rings: circular or figure-of-eight paths trampled during the rut.

The trophy is the antler, scored under the CIC system: beam length, antler weight and volume, and spread are measured, and beauty points are given (colour, pearling, coronets, tine tips). The gold medal threshold is 130 CIC points.