MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 317, pp. 1-8,3 figs. Dama dama. By George A. Feldharner, Kelly C. Farris-Renner, and Celeste M. Barker Published 27 December 1988 by The American Society of Mammalogists Dama dama (Linnaeus, 1758) Detailed descripti ons of the skull and dentition of European fallow deer are in Flerov (19 52), and Harrison (1968) described Persian Fallow Deer fallow deer. Cercus dum a Linnaeus, 1758 :67. T ype locality Sweden (introduced). Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mspecies/article/doi/10.2307/3504141/2600626 by guest on 29 September 2021 Ty pe spec ies of Duma Frisch. 1775 validated by plenary GENERAL CHARACTERS. Pelage coloration is the most powers. var iable of any spec ies of deer, with four main color varieties: white. Plat vccros plinii Zimmer ma n, 1780: 129. Renamin g of duma. men il, common (typical), and black (Chapm an and Chapm an. 1975). Cercus platvccros G. Cuvier , 1798:160. Renaming of dama. Int ermediat e pelage colors are cream. sandy , silver-grey, and sooty C NI'IIS mauricus F. Cuvier, 18 16:72. No localit y given. (Whitehead. 1972). Typical pelage is darker on the dorsal surface Ccr ru s (I)ama) m esopot amicus Brooke. 1875:26 4. Type localit y than the ventral sur face . ches t. and lower legs. A black dor sal stripe Khuzistan, Luristan (Persia). Ir an . ext end s from the na pe of the neck to the tip of the tail and around the upper edge of the white rump patch. T ypically. white spots are CONTEXT AND CONTENT. Ord er Artiod act yla. Subor­ evident on the back and flank s. with fewer on the neck and none der Huminantia, Family Cervidae , Subfamily Cervinae, Tribe Cervini . on the head or legs (Chapman and Chapm an . 1975). Spots on the The genus Dam« is here recognized . although some a uthors (Honacki lower sides and haunches fuse into a whit" line. In Persian fallow et al., 1982) consider it to be congeneric with Cercii s. The generi c deer , a white line is evident on each side of the dorsal stripe. The nam e lram« for the fallow deer was valida ted by Opinion 581 of dorsal stripe is more brownish in Persian fallow deer and markings the Intern atio nal Commission on Zoological Nomencl ature. Some around the caud al area are less distinctive (Harri son. 1968). Summer earlier authors (Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951; Lydekker, 1898) pelage color is genera lly dark reddish-brown dorsally grading to white considered the Persian fallow deer (IJ. d. mesopotumicusi a sepa ra te ventrally (Whitehead, 1972). Spotting is more prono unced in sum­ species. l\lost recent authors (Corbet, 1978; Haltenorth, 195 9; Har ­ mer than winter pelage. Haltenor th (19 59) described in deta il pelage rison, 1968) gave the Persian fallow deer subspecific sta tus. although color and characteristics. and associated seasonal changes of Persian Haltenorth (1963:56) and Ferguson et al. (1985) considered it to fallow deer. be a distinct species. Both sexes ha ve suborbital. rear interdigital, and metatar sal glands. :\letatar sal gland s are surrounded by pale hair tha t forms l ). d. dama (Linnaeu s, 1758 :67), see above ialbu» Fitzinger , leu­ an oval 40 nun long and :{5 nun wide. A scent gland is associated rncthiops Fischer, truturu Fischer , mtiuricus Cuvier , niger with the penis (Chapman . 1977), and there is a distinctive tuft of Fitzinger, platvccros Cuvier , plinii Zimmerm an . ,'a rills Fit­ zinger , and rulgar is Fischer are svnonyrns). l). d. mesopotamicus (Brooke. 187 5:2(4), see abo ve im cso pota­ m iuc Trouessart, is a syuonym). DIAGNOSIS. In Eur opean fallow deer shoulder height of males is about 0.9 to 1.0 m, with females slightly smaller. Forelegs are somewhat shorte r than hind legs. so the line of the back is d " vat"d posteriorly (Fig. I; Flero v, 1952). The " Adam's apple " is promin ent in males. Pela ge color is variable and spots usually are evident in all age classes. Antlers usually are found only in males. Yearling s genera lly produce unbranched " spike" antlers :) to 15 cm long. In adults. antl ers are cha rac ter istica lly palmate in individual s :{ years of age and older. The antler beam is narrow and cylindrical. and curves laterall y and posteriorl y at about a 6DO angle' from the pedicel. An upswppt, well-developed brow tin" arises just above the coronet. The bay tine usually is absent. A small trez tine proje cts laterally just below the palm . Antler length ranges from 50 to 70 ern: the width of the palm ran ges from 7 to 20 em, and the palm is inflected medially at the top (Fig. I). Several projections (" spellers ' or "snags") ar e directed posteriorl y. with the longest at the LJottOIIl of the palm (Cadman, 1966; Cha pman and Chapm an . 1975). In Persian fallow deer broad , fan-shaped palmation usuall y occurs basally immediately abo ve the short brow tine. The beam "Xtends from the posterior portion of the palm. ending in a variable number of tines (Brooke . 1875; Halt eno rth , 1959; Harrison, 19(8). Th e skull is shor ter and broader and has lar ger orbit s than in Cercus (Harrison. 19(8). Prelacrimal vacuities are large but shallow. the lacrim al fossa is pronounced. and two lac rimal ducts are on the rim of the orbit (Fig. 2). Th e vomer does not partition the intern al nares. Pr emaxilla usuall y articulates with nasals. Harrison (1968: :)65 ) noted " ... the proximal end of the nasal bones is blunt in D. d . mcsopotamica and their late ral profile is more strongly conv ex than in 1J. d. dama; the suture between the malar and superior maxilla is about equidistant from the lower border of the molar s [in Persian fallow deer J. in D. d. dania it is much nearer to the orbit. " FtG. 1. Adult male fallow deer with characteristic palm ate There usuall y are no upper canin es, first pair of incisors with large, antlers. prominent " Ada m's apple." and spotted pelage. Photo cour­ spatulate crowns. lower ca nines incisifonn, and molariform dentition tesy of D. Sharp, Tennessee Valley Authority. Land Between the hypsodont. Dent al formula is i 0/ 3. c u/T , p 3/3, m 3/3 total 32. Lake s. Kentuck y. 2 MAMMALIA N SPECIES 3 17 about 4 to 140/0. The following are mean cra nial meas ure ments (in mm) of adults from Scotland an d England (free-ran ging and park deer) : condylobasa l length, males (Il = 4 7) 263 (ran ge, 24 1 to 28 3), females (Il = 46 ) 247 (23 1 to 26 7); zygomatic width, males (Il = 6 9) 127 (115 to 140), fema les (Il = 54 ) 109 (102 to 118); length of man dible, males (Il = 68 ) 200 (18 5 to 2 16), females (Il = 49) 191 (1 75 to 20 3; Chap man, 19 77) . Per sian fallow deer are generally larger; condylobasal length of two adu lt males was 28 7 and 308 mm (Harrison. 1968). DISTRIBUTION. Following the last glaciation the species is believed to have had a natural range in southern European regions along the Mediterranean Sea , Asia Minor , and possibly nort hern Africa and Eth iopia (Corbet, 1978; Harrison, 1968; Meester and Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mspecies/article/doi/10.2307/3504141/2600626 by guest on 29 September 2021 Setzer, 19 71; W hitehead, 19 72). They are one of the most widely introduced ungulates (Fig. 3), with populations in about 38 countries from latitudes 6 1°N to 4605 in North and South America, the Leeward Island s, Euro pe, South Africa, Austra lia, New Zealand , and Fiji (N. G. Chap man and D. I. Chapma n, 198 0; Lever, 1985). There were unsuccessful intr oductions in Colorado (Pr esnall, 1958) an d Massachusett s (Godin, 19 77). In Africa, fallow deer in Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and Tu nisia probably have been extirpat ed for severa l centuries (Meester and Setzer, 19 71) . In the Middle East, fallow deer remain only in Turk ey (Heidemann , 19 73). Persian fallow deer formerly ran ged in Iran , Iraq, possibly Jordan and Syria , southern lebano n, and Israel (Fer ­ guson et al., 198 5; Harrison, I 968). Free-ranging Persian fallow deer probably occur only on the Dez and Karkheh wildlife refu ges in sout hwest Iran , where combined populat ion density is estima ted to be only 40 to 65 (Depa rtm ent of the Environment Iran, 1978 ). FOSSIL RECORD. Remains of Dama dat e from the mid­ Pleistocene (400,0 00 yea rs before present) first interglacial (Lister . 1984 ). The Clacton fallow deer (I). d. clactoniunas , known from several European sites (Leonardi and Petronio. 1976; Sutcliffe, 1964) from the second interglacial (25 0,000 year s before present), shows " .. very close similarities to present day Eur opean fallow deer . ..'" (Chap man and Chap man, 197 5:37). References to early Pleis­ tocen e Dam a in Europe (Azzaroli, 1 9 5 :~) and China (de Chardin and Tr assaer t, 193 7) probably are erroneous (l ister , 1984; Sickenberg . 1965 ). Chapman and Cha pma n (1975) suggested that many of the 18 or more species of fossil fallow deer named are invalid or syn­ onym ous with Clacton fallow deer . Fallow deer probably were ex­ tirpat ed in Europe during the last glaciation (Chapman and Chap man , 1975; althoug h see Zeuner , 196 3), with the possible exception of sites in southern Europe (Bokonyi, 1971 ).