Deer.The project

was designedby the pupil of the

10-th formDrygina Maria

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae . A number of broadly similar animals from related families within the order Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates) are often also called deer. Male deer of all species (except the Chinese water deer) grow and shed new antlers each year – in this they differ from permanently horned animals such as antelope – these are in the same order as deer and may bear a superficial resemblance. The Musk deer of Asia and Water Chevrotain (or Mouse Deer) of tropical African and Asian forests are not true deer and form their own families, Moschidae and Tragulidae, respectively. All other animals in Africa resembling deer are antelope.

Deer live in a variety of biomes ranging from tundra to the tropical rainforest. While often associated with forests, many deer are ecotone species that live in transitional areas between forests and thickets (for cover) and prairie and savanna (open space). The majority of large deer species inhabit temperate mixed deciduous forest, mountain mixed coniferous forest, tropical seasonal/dry forest, and savanna habitats around the world. Clearing open areas within forests to some extent may actually benefit deer populations by exposing the understory and allowing the types of grasses, weeds, and herbs to grow that deer like to eat. Additionally, access to adjacent croplands may also benefit deer. However, adequate forest or brush cover must still be provided for populations to grow and thrive.

The noble deer has a reddish or brown color that complicates its search in a wood. It prefers the deciduous and mixed woods, with glades and hills. If the deer stands motionlessly behind the bushes then it is not appreciable. Only the light spot that is near the tail and it is called «the mirror" - can give it out. Long legs and rangy body allow deer to move easily and quickly at the wood. Only the heads of stages are decorated by fine branchy horns.

Deer is very cautious animal. It’s organs of sense are perfectly developed. When the deer stands motionlessly among the trees, it becomes imperceptible for a human eye. At hunting for it, it is necessary to keep cautiously and silently, in fact it can feel a man on distance more than 500 meters. Deer conducts a secret way of life. They are fed in the morning and in the evening, and have a rest in the afternoon. Only during the estrus the male beasts become not so accurate, and can easily rise to it.

Not only the deer’s horns have value, but also meat, skins, fat. The medical preparation pantokrine is made from the maral’s young horns. From the end of August the hunting "on a roar» begins. It proceeds till November. Your can identify the place of estrus by the broken and pull up by the roots trees, the uric "points", the tournament places which have been beaten out by hoofs.

The wood in the early morning is resounded by the deer’s voice. The hunter should imitate the clarion of weaker contender and cause desire to enter struggle. The cold, silent, and dry weather favors to the estrus, and the windy and rainy weather reduce the deer’s ardency. The old male beast has a rough and rolling voice. The adult one has a high trumpet and rolling voice, but not rough. It is possible to hear for some kilometers away how the deer blows.

The roar lasts on the average during the month and depends on a livestock of animals, the general fatness and weather. After full wintering and good summer – the estrus is furious and intensive. If the winter is difficult, and the weather is bad and, the main thing, at approximately identical sexual parity in herd, the eastrus proceeds more easy. If the mail beast can not hear the hanter’s approaching during a roar the doe is very cautious: it hears and sees well. That’s why , being near the deer with it’s harem, it is necessary to watch after the behavior both the deer and the doe.

One species of deer are declining dramatically - it musk deer.

Musk deer populations in some parts of Russia and Mongolia are rapidly dwindling as a result of poaching for highly valued musk pods, highly valued in traditional Asian medicine despite conservation laws that provide for a regulated and managed legal hunt and trade.

In Russia, an estimated 80% of all musk deer killed appear to have been poached and the illegal trade in musk is thought to have been five times that of the legal trade

in the early 2000s, according to a new report launched today by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, and WWF, the conservation organization.   

A report by TRAFFIC Europe, No Licence To Kill: The population and harvest of musk deer and trade in musk in the Russian Federation and Mongolia, found densities of musk deer to be low in the Altai-Sayan region of Russia, where it is alleged that musk deer populations were at only a quarter or a fifth of their levels

in the 1970s and 1980s - mainly as a result of poaching.  

«This scale of poaching not only raises the question of how long musk deer populations can sustain this off-take, but also highlights a clear enforcement problem," said the editor of the report, Volker Homes of TRAFFIC Europe.»   

We must protect the

nature around us!