Fallow deer

Persian fallow deer are physically larger than fallow deer, and their antlers are bigger and less palmated. They are nearly extinct today, inhabiting only a small habitat in Khuzestan, southern Iran, two rather small protected areas in Mazandaran (northern Iran), an area of northern Israel, an island in Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran, and in some parts of Iraq. They were formerly found from Mesopotamia and Egypt to the Cyrenaica and Cyprus. Their preferred habitat is open woodland. They are bred in zoos and parks in Iran, Israel, and Germany today. In 1978, as the Iranian Revolution was unfolding, with the help of Prince Gholam Reza Pahlavi (the Shah's brother) and the chief of the games and wild life of Iran, the Israeli conservationists carried some of the captive fallow deer out of Iran and into Israel for safekeeping. Since 1996, they have been gradually and successfully reintroduced from a breeding center in the Carmel, into the wild in northern Israel, and more than 650 of them now live in the Galilee, Mount Carmel areas and the Brook of Sorek; however, this population is hybridized with D. Dama. The population of Persian fallow deer has become well established in Iran and gradually growing in number in a number of protected parks and zoos. Due to the rarity of this species, little information exists on their behavior and social structure in the wild; therefore, most biological information comes from captive-bred or reintroduced deer, which may not present an accurate representation of the natural population.