Fallow Deer

From Wikipedia

The Fallow Deer was a native of most of Europe during the last Interglacial. In the Holocene, the distribution was restricted to the Middle East and possibly also parts of the Mediterranean region, while further southeast in western Asia was the home of a close relative, the Persian Fallow Deer (Dama mesopotamica), that is bigger and has larger antlers. In the Levant, Fallow Deer were an important source of meat in the Palaeolithic Kebaran-culture (17000-10000 BC), as is shown by animal bones from sites in northern Israel, but the numbers decreased in the following epi-Palaeolithic Natufian culture (10000-8500 BC), perhaps because of increased aridity and the decrease of wooded areas.

The Fallow Deer was spread across central Europe by the Romans, and introduced to the British Isles by the Normans. The Normans kept them for hunting in the royal forests, as was the use of later rulers. From the 12th century onwards, they were released into the wild for hunting purposes. The Fallow Deer is easily tamed and is often kept semi-domesticated in parks today. In some areas of Central Europe, wild fallow deer, not having any natural enemies, have increased to numbers that cause serious damage to young trees. In more recent times, Fallow Deer have also been introduced in parts of the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

One noted historical herd of fallow deer is located in the Ottenby Preserve in Õland, Sweden where Karl X Gustav erected a drystone wall some four kilometers long to enclose a royal fallow deer herd in the mid 1500s; the herd still exists as of 2006 (Environmental Baseline Study, Lumina Technologies, Oland, Sweden, July, 2004).