Deer | Characteristics, Species, Types, Family, & Facts (2024)

deer, (family Cervidae), any of 43 species of hoofed ruminants in the order Artiodactyla, notable for having two large and two small hooves on each foot and also for having antlers in the males of most species and in the females of one species. Deer are native to all continents except Australia and Antarctica, and many species have been widely introduced beyond their original habitats as game animals. One species, the reindeer (also known as the caribou), has been domesticated. Some swamp and island species are endangered, but most continental species are flourishing under protection and good management. Deer, when granted some protection, readily exploit man-made disturbances caused by agriculture, forestry, and urbanization. White-tailed deer, normally a cherished North American game animal, have even become pests in suburbs and cities in the United States and Canada.

The word deer has been applied at times to species that are not cervids, such as the musk deer (Moschus) and mouse deer (Tragulus). However, the former is now placed in a separate family (Moschidae), while mouse deer are actually primitive ruminants of the family Tragulidae. With these exclusions, Cervidae becomes the deer family, a consistent, natural grouping of species.

Morphology and behaviour

In all but one species of deer, males carry antlers; in the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), both sexes carry antlers. The single antlerless form, the Chinese water deer (Hydropotes inermis), reflects an earlier pre-antler condition, as is shown by the fossil record. In this primitive condition males have long, sharp upper canines, called tusks, that are used for slashing and stabbing in territorial contests. Some species carry both antlers and tusks and show a progression of increased antler size and complexity with decreased size and functional structure of the tusks. (Musk deer resemble primitive deer in that males are armed with tusks.)

Deer have several other distinguishing characteristics. All deer lack the gall bladder. Females have four teats. Deer may have scent glands on their legs (metatarsal, tarsal, and pedal glands), but they do not have rectal, vulval, or preputal glands.

Deer are specialized herbivores, as is reflected in their large and anatomically complex digestive organs, their mobile lips, and the size and complexity of their teeth. However, deer rely little on coarse-fibred grasses, and they have not evolved grazing specializations comparable to those found in bovids. Instead, they are highly selective feeders on young grasses, herbs, lichens, foliage, buds, aquatic plants, woody shoots, fruit, and natural ensilage—that is, plant food characterized by low fibre but high protein content, toxicity, and digestibility.

The bias of deer toward high-quality food has its origin in the very high demands of antler growth for minerals, protein, and energy. Antlers are “bone horns” that are grown and shed annually. The growing antlers are encased in “velvet,” a highly vascularized, nerve-filled skin covered by short, soft hairs. The blood-engorged, growing antlers are warm to the touch and quite sensitive. Depending on the species, they take up to 150 days to grow, after which the velvet dies and is forcefully removed by rubbing the antlers against branches and small trees. Along with some blood residue, this imparts a brownish colour to the otherwise white antler bone. Antlers finish growing before the mating season and are used as weapons and shields in combat or as display organs in courtship. Normally shed after the mating season, antlers may be retained in some territorial tropical deer for more than a year. The relative demand for energy and nutrients declines with body size but increases exponentially for antler growth. Therefore, large-bodied species require more nutrients and energy to grow antlers than do small-bodied species. These requirements cannot be obtained from grasses but only from nutrient-rich dicotyledonous plants.

The requirement for nutrients and energy has severe repercussions on the ecology of deer. It confines deer to relatively productive habitats, excluding them from deserts, dry grasslands, and geologically old landscapes leached of nutrients. Moreover, it severely limits the abundance of Cervidae in mature, species-rich faunas in which many herbivore species compete for food. In order to meet their high nutrient demands, deer are specialized to exploit disturbed ecosystems. For instance, after a forest fire, an area normally passes through several ecological plant successions within a few decades before the original conditions are restored. Early plant successions normally contain an abundance of the type of plant food required by deer. Some disturbances, such as river flooding and the rise and fall of lake levels, occur annually and create local, perpetually immature, nutrient-rich ecosystems. Since disturbances such as wildfires, storm floods, avalanches, or wind-felled trees are unpredictable, deer have evolved great abilities to quickly find and colonize such transient habitats. For example, the severe ecological upheaval caused by the extreme climatic oscillations of the Ice Ages greatly favoured deer. Glaciers ground rock into highly fertile waterborne silt and wind-borne loess that refertilized landscapes and rejuvenated the soil. Extinctions swept away warm-climate competitors. From the tropics deer spread to colder and more seasonal landscapes, including the Alps and the Arctic. Like other families of large mammals that colonized extreme Ice Age environments, deer diversified and evolved into grotesque giants that had ornate coat patterns and large, bizarre antlers, which could grow only from nutrient-rich soils.

While deer tend to have broad, somewhat similar food habits, they are highly divergent in their antipredator strategies. This divergence segregates species ecologically and thus minimizes potential food competition between species sharing the same space. A deer species that hides and, if discovered, departs in rapid jumps to hide again requires forests and thickets, while a highly specialized runner needs flat, unobstructed terrain to outrun predators. Specialized jumpers may choose to stay close to steep slopes and rugged terrain and thus avoid areas frequented by species that run and jump, while cliff climbers may exploit gradients and altitudes closed to others.