Deer and Thomas S. Savage: Difference between pages

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Revision as of 05:21, 24 May 2007

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'''Thomas Staughton Savage''' ([[1804]]-[[1880]]) was an [[United States|American]] Protestant clergyman, missionary, [[physician]] and [[natural history|naturalist]].

{{Taxobox_begin | color = pink | name = Deer}}

{{Taxobox_image | image = [[image:Deervelvet.jpg|250px]] | caption = }}

{{Taxobox_begin_placement | color = pink}}

{{Taxobox_regnum_entry | taxon = [[Animal]]ia}}

{{Taxobox_phylum_entry | taxon = [[Chordate|Chordata]]}}

{{Taxobox_classis_entry | taxon = [[Mammal]]ia}}

{{Taxobox_ordo_entry | taxon = [[Artiodactyla]]}}

{{Taxobox_subordo_entry | taxon = [[Ruminantia]]}}

{{Taxobox_familia_entry | taxon = '''Cervidae'''}}<br/>{{Taxobox authority | author = [[Georg August Goldfuss|Goldfuss]] | date = 1820}}

{{Taxobox_end_placement}}

{{Taxobox_section_subdivision | color = pink | plural_taxon = Subfamilies}}

[[Capreolinae]]<br>

[[Cervinae]]<br>

[[Hydropotinae]]<br>

[[Muntiacinae]]

{{Taxobox_end}}

In 1836 Savage was sent as a missionary to [[Liberia]]. During his time in Africa he acquired the skull and other bones from an unknown ape species, which he described in 1847 with [[Jeffries Wyman]] with the scientific name ''[[Troglodytes gorilla]]'', now known as the [[Western Gorilla]].

Defined strictly, a '''deer''' is a [[ruminant]] [[mammal]] belonging to the [[family (biology)|family]] '''Cervidae'''. A number of broadly similar animals, from related families within the [[order (biology)|order]] [[Artiodactyla]], are often also called ''deer''.

[[Category:DeerZoologists|Savage]]

Depending on the species, male deer are called '''stags''', ''harts'', ''[[buck]]s'' or ''[[bull]]s'', and females are called ''[[hind]]s'', ''[[doe]]s'' or ''[[cow]]s''. Young deer are called '''fawns''' or ''[[calf|calve]]s''. ''Hart'' is an expression for a stag, particularly a [[Red Deer]] stag past its fifth year. It is not commonly used, but an example is in [[Shakespeare]]'s "[[Romeo and Juliet]]" when Tybalt refers to the brawling Montagues and Capulets as ''hartless hinds''. "The White Hart" and "The Red Hart" are common English [[pub]] names.

Deer are widely distributed, with representatives in all continents except [[Australia]], [[Antarctica]], and [[Africa]]. Australia does have six [[introduced species]] of deer that have established sustainable wild populations from Acclimatisation Society releases in the 19th Century. These are [[Fallow Deer]], [[Red Deer]], [[Sambar Deer]], [[Hog Deer]], [[Rusa Deer]], and [[Chital Deer]][http://rubens.anu.edu.au/student.projects/rabbits/wildanim.html]. Although exotic to the continent, environmental factors restrict their ranges to habitable patches, thereby preventing any one species from becoming a serious pest. Red Deer introduced into [[New Zealand]] in early 1900s (a gift from United States President [[Theodore Roosevelt]]) have been largely domesticated since the late 1960s and are common farm animals there now.

{{zoologist-stub}}

Deer differ from other ruminants in that they have [[antler]]s instead of horns. Antlers are bony growths that develop each year (usually in summer) and, in general, it is only male deer that develop them (although there are exceptions).

There are about 34 [[species]] of deer worldwide, divided into two broad groups: the old world group includes the subfamilies Muntiacinae and Cervinae; the new world deer the subfamilies Hydropotinae and Capreolinae. Note that the terms indicate the origin of the groups, not their modern distribution: the [[Water Deer]], for example, is a new world species but is found only in [[China]] and [[Korea]].

It is thought that the new world group evolved about 5 million years ago in the forests of [[North America]] and [[Siberia]], the old world deer in [[Asia]].

Deer are selective feeders. They feed on leaves. They have small, unspecialised stomachs by herbivore standards, and high nutrition requirements: ingesting sufficient minerals to grow a new pair of antlers every year is a significant task. Rather than attempt to digest vast quantities of low-grade, fibrous food as, for example, sheep and cattle do, deer select easily digestible shoots, young leaves, fresh grasses, soft twigs, [[fruit]], [[fungi]], and [[lichen]]s.

Deer have long had economic significance to humans. While they are generally not as easily domesticated as [[sheep]], [[goat]]s, [[pig]]s, and even [[cattle]], the association between people and deer is very old. Deer meat, for which they are hunted and farmed, is called [[venison]].

{| align=right

|[[image:Fawn_in_Forest.jpg|thumb|250px|Fawn]]

|-

|[[image:deerwindow.jpg|thumb|250px|Fawn]]

|-

|[[image:Deer_running.jpg|thumb|250px|Deer running]]

|-

|[[image:White-tailed deer.jpg|thumb|250px|White-tailed Deer]]

|-

|[[Image:Nature and Appearance of Deer and how they can be hunted with Dogs Fac simile of a Miniature in the Livre du Roy Modus Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century National Library of Paris.png|250px|thumb|"Nature and Appearance of Deer, and how they can be hunted with Dogs," taken from "Livre du Roy Modus," created in the [[14th Century]]]]

|}

==Fictional deer==

*For role of deer in [[mythology]], see [[Deer (mythology)|deer in mythology]].

*In [[Christmas]] lore (the narrative poem "'Twas The Night Before Christmas"), [[reindeer]] are believed to pull the sleigh of [[Santa Claus]].

*One famous fictional deer is ''Bambi''. Contrary to what most people believe, in the [[Disney]] movie ''[[Bambi]]'', he is a [[white-tailed deer]], while in [[Felix Salten]]'s original book ''[[Bambi, A Life in the Woods]]'', he is a [[roe deer]].

*Saint [[Hubertus]] saw a stag with a [[crucifix]] between its antlers while hunting on [[Good Friday]] and was converted to [[Christianity]] by the vision.

*In ''[[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban]]'', the [[Patronus Charm]] that [[Harry Potter]] conjures up to scare away the [[Dementors]] is a silver Stag because his father's, [[James and Lily Potter|James Potter]], [[Animagus]] form was a stag.

*On the television series ''[[Angel (TV series)|Angel]]'', one episode depicts the hart as the last of three animals symbolically representing the evil law firm of Wolfram & Hart.

==Web Links==

[http://www.worlddeer.org The World Deer Site]

[http://www.worlddeer.org/deerspecies.html Deer Species of the World]

[[Category:Even-toed ungulates]]

[[Category:Deer]]

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