Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus): Facts, Size and Habitat

What does a roe deer look like?

The roe deer is slender, with long legs, a short body and a fairly short neck. Its large ears and big dark eyes give it an alert look. The muzzle is black, with a white patch on the chin and a dark “moustache” stripe around the mouth.

The coat changes with the seasons. In summer it is a bright reddish-brown or foxy red, short and sleek. In autumn the deer molt into a thick winter coat of grayish-brown or dark gray, which provides much better insulation.

The rump has a patch of white or cream hair that the deer can flare out when alarmed, making it look larger and brighter. The tail is so short that it is almost invisible. In winter, the rump patch differs between the sexes: in females it is often heart-shaped or shows a tuft of hair called the anal tush, and in males it is more kidney-shaped.

Only males, called bucks or roebucks, grow antlers. These are short, rough and upright, usually reaching 20–25 cm (8–10 in), with three points on each side in a mature buck. Females are called does, and the young are fawns or kids.

How big is a roe deer?

The roe deer is a small deer, about the size of a large dog. Size varies across its range and with food supply and population density.

Males are usually slightly larger than females where populations are healthy, but in very dense populations the sexes can be about the same size. For comparison, a red deer stag usually weighs 90–240 kg (200–530 lb), several times as much as a roebuck.

Habitat and range

Roe deer live in almost all of Europe, from Britain, France and Spain east to the Caucasus Mountains, northern Turkey and the Caspian region of northern Iran. They are absent from Iceland, most of Ireland, the far north of Scandinavia and most Mediterranean islands. In southern Europe they are mainly found in hills and mountains.

Farther east, from around the Volga River to the Pacific, they are replaced by the larger Siberian roe deer (Capreolus pygargus), now treated as a separate species. Where the two meet, in parts of Russia and eastern Europe, they sometimes hybridize.

Roe deer are very adaptable. Their ideal habitat is a mix of woodland and open ground, where they can hide in cover by day and feed at the edges. They also live in conifer plantations, scrub, reed beds, farmland with hedges and copses, and even large open fields with very little cover, as in parts of central Europe. In Britain they have moved into suburbs and cities such as Glasgow and Bristol, where they often use cemeteries and parks.

What do roe deer eat?

Roe deer are browsers and selective feeders. Rather than grazing large amounts of grass, they pick the most nutritious parts of many plants: leaves, buds and shoots of trees and shrubs, brambles, ivy, herbs, flowers, berries, acorns and beech nuts. They also eat young grass, especially tender, moist growth, as well as fungi and farm crops such as cereals and rapeseed.

Because of their small stomachs, roe deer need to eat often. They usually feed in several bouts spread through the day and night, each followed by a rest to chew the cud. In winter they rely more on bramble leaves, conifer shoots, ivy and evergreen plants. For a broader look at deer diets, see what deer eat.

Behavior and communication

Roe deer are mostly active at dawn and dusk, with feeding bouts at night and during the day in quiet places. They are shy and usually stay close to cover. When resting, they scrape away leaf litter to make a shallow bed.

Unlike red deer, roe deer do not form large herds for most of the year. In spring and summer they are solitary or live in small family units of a doe and her young. Bucks are territorial from spring to late summer, marking their areas by rubbing their antlers on saplings and scraping the ground, and chasing away rival males. In winter, roe deer may gather in loose groups, especially in open farmland, where groups of a dozen or more can form.

Roe deer have a surprising range of sounds:

• A loud, hoarse bark, given by both sexes when alarmed or disturbed and by bucks in territorial disputes. It is explained in detail in why roe deer bark.
• A high-pitched whistle or “peep”, used by does to call their fawns and during the rut.
• A shrill scream when an animal is in distress.

Reproduction and life cycle

The roe deer rut takes place from mid-July to mid-August, during the warm summer months. Bucks chase does in circles or figure-eights around a tree or bush, often wearing a ring-shaped track in the vegetation, known as a “roe ring.”

The roe deer is famous for its unusual pregnancy. After mating, the fertilized egg develops into a tiny ball of cells and then pauses until late December or early January, when it attaches to the wall of the womb and growth resumes. This process, called delayed implantation or embryonic diapause, is explained in why roe deer are pregnant for so long.

Fawns are born from May to June, about ten months after mating. Twins are most common, often one male and one female, though singles and occasionally triplets occur. The spotted fawns spend their first weeks lying hidden in long grass or crops while the mother feeds nearby, returning several times a day to nurse them. They are weaned at around three months and stay with their mother until the following spring.

Young does usually mate for the first time in their second summer, at about 14 months old, and give birth when they are two. In good habitat with plenty of food, almost every adult doe produces fawns each year, which is one reason roe deer populations can grow so quickly. Bucks usually need a few years to win a territory of their own, and young males are often pushed out by older bucks in spring, when they disperse to find new ground.

Antlers

A roebuck sheds its antlers between October and December, earlier in older males. Unlike most deer, it begins growing a new set almost immediately, during the winter. The growing antlers are covered in soft, hairy skin called velvet, which is rubbed off in spring, usually by April or May. The hard antlers are then ready for the territorial season. Read more about the yearly cycle in why deer shed their antlers.

Lifespan, predators and threats

Most wild roe deer live 7–10 years. A few survive into their mid-teens, and ages close to 20 have been recorded only rarely. Mortality is highest among fawns in their first weeks of life and during their first winter.

Natural predators of adult roe deer include the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx, for which roe deer are often the most important prey. Red foxes, wild boar, golden eagles and stray dogs kill some fawns. In much of western Europe, where large predators are scarce, the main causes of death are road traffic, farm machinery during mowing, harsh winters and human hunting, which is regulated in most countries.

Conservation status

The roe deer is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, and its population is increasing in much of Europe. Numbers grew strongly during the 20th century thanks to new forests, changes in farming, the loss of large predators and hunting regulations.

In Britain, roe deer had disappeared from most of England by the 18th century but survived in Scotland and parts of northern England. Reintroductions in the 19th century, including roe deer brought from Germany to Thetford Forest in 1884, plus natural spread, have since made them common across most of Britain. High deer numbers can now damage young woodland by browsing seedlings and shoots.

Roe deer and people

The roe deer has a long cultural history in Europe. Its English name comes from the Old English rā. In the original 1923 book Bambi, A Life in the Woods by the Austrian author Felix Salten, Bambi was a roe deer. When Disney made the 1942 animated film for American audiences, he became a white-tailed deer instead.

Today roe deer are one of the most commonly seen wild mammals in European countryside, often spotted at the edge of a wood at dusk. The best way to watch them is quietly, from a distance and with the wind blowing toward you, because their senses of smell and hearing are excellent.