Within October the rut takes place, the fallow bucks become territorial and aggressive; defending their territory with groans and a rutting stance for a doe to come and mate with them. Outside the rut, the bucks live together in all male groups of 5-10 deer, separate from the deer and the fawns. After the mating takes place, the females carry their young in a gestation of 234 days, there after cared for until the next rut.
The Fallow Deer is the most common British deer and can become a pest within commercial forestry and farmland, where huts and traps keep the numbers at bay. Fallow deer have no natural predators within the UK therefore without culling, the numbers would increase exponentially.
To track fallow deer, you can follow their footprints. Their foot prints can be easily confused with Sika Deer, sheep or goats. They have the largest footprints of deer in the UK, with the prints measuring on average 4-6cm, the hind foot is narrower that the forefoot with dew claws absent from the tracks. The outer edge of the foot is concave, thereby making the tracks pear shape with the toe pad taking up half of the length of the footprint.
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