fallow deer | nature photography | suikerbossies photography | 2023
fallow deer | nature photography | suikerbossies photography | 2023
fallow deer | nature photography | suikerbossies photography | 2023
It was a very special moment to spot this beautiful fallow deer buck, He was super chilled just soaking in the late afternoon sun.
Below is some very interesting facts I found online about fallow deers in South Africa.
fallow deer | nature photography | suikerbossies photography | 2023
fallow deer | nature photography | suikerbossies photography | 2023
The fallow deer is a medium-sized deer that is native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa.
Fallow deer were introduced to South Africa by the occupying British in the 1860’s and have been in South Africa for so long they can almost be accepted as native animals.
The Cape (currently Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces) then became a significant staging post for shipping traffic between Europe and Asia from 1600 to the 1850s. European settlers brought with them more pests and many domestic animals, some of which were deliberately let loose to breed for the purposes of supplying meat. These early pathways by ship were dominated by deliberate introductions.
Notable among them were the efforts by the Dutch colonial administrator, Jan van Riebeeck, to establish a colony of rabbits on Robben Island, which he reported in his journals in the mid-1600s.
By the mid-1800s societies formed in many colonies to deliberately introduce species that reminded them of their European origins. In South Africa, many such introductions are attributed to British businessman, mining magnet and politician Cecil John Rhodes, Prime Minister of Cape Colony 1890–1896, who is said to have introduced Sturnus vulgaris(Common Starling), and Fringilla coelebs (Common Chaffinch), as well as Dama dama (Fallow Deer), and Sciurus carolinensis (Grey Squirrels), which were themselves introduced to England from North America (Brooke et al. 1986). During this time there were many more introductions of species that failed to establish, records of these include four more birds introduced by Rhodes: Corvus frugilegus (Rooks) Luscinia megarhynchos (Nightingales), Turdus merula, (Blackbirds) and T. philomelos (Song Thrushes)
In South Africa there are mainly two color variations present: the brown or common and then a white colored fallow deer.
fallow deer | nature photography | suikerbossies photography | 2023
