Fauna2htm

by Liam Junior Infants	A stag is a daddy or male deer.
A hind is a mummy or female deer.Sometimes a female deer is called a doe.	by Katie 2nd class
by Zara 2nd class	A calf or fawn is a baby deer. Their coat is spotted so they can hide in the grass.
Deer eat grass and leaves. Sometimes in spring they chew the bark of trees to get at the rising sap.Sometimes they eat the young shoots of trees.	By Ben Senior Infants
By Grace 2nd Class	Deer are very fast at running.
Red Deer are native to Ireland . They are the biggest deer. Now you can only find the native Red Deer in Killarney on the Mc Gillicuddy Reeks. Red Deer are also found in Wicklow , but these are cross-bread with the Sika Deer. Deer are herbivores, which means they eat mainly plants. . They love to eat young tree shoots. The male (stag) has large branching antlers, which grow a new branch each year. The female (hind) never grows antlers. October to November is the rutt or the mating season. The stags fight to mate. In the end the strongest stags mates with the most hinds. Calves (fawns) are born in June. They stay with the hinds for about a year. By Andrew Rang 5	Red Deer Stag and Hinds
Fallow Deer painted by Teddy Rang 6
Fallow Deer Fallow deer are found on Carrick Mt near Glenealy.The biggest herd of Fallow Deer in Ireland is in Phoenix Park.Fallow Deer were brought to Ireland by the Normans.They kept them on their estates for hunting. Fallow deer eat grass, herbs, shrubs and berries. They are chestnut brown in colour but some are black and some grey. They have white spots in the summer but lose these in winter. Fallow deer are a bit smaller then Red Deer. Like the Red Deer they cast their antlers in May/ June. Coming into Winter the stags start fraying or butting the trees. They do this to mark their teritory before the rutt. In May or June, when the mother is having her baby she goes into the wood. The spots on the calf help camoflauge the calf, so the mother leaves the calf in hiding while she goes off to graze. Fallow deer's antlers are not the same as other deer, their antlers are palmate(shaped like the palm of your hand). Fallow deer are a bit smaller then Red Deer. Like the Red Deer they cast their antlers in May/June. By Amy Rang 3
by Mathew Rang 4
Sika Deer Lord Powerscourt brought the Sika Deer to Ireland from Japan in 1861 .They are about 80-90 cm tall from the shoulder to the ground. Lord Powersccourt had them on his estate. Originally there was one stag and 3 hinds. Some of the deer escaped and bred with native Red Deer on the Wicklow Mountains. We call these Hybrid or crossbred deer . We can see these on the Wicklow Mountains .Sika Deer are the smallest deer in Ireland.There are Sika Deer in Avondale. by Aby Rang 4
	A hybrid deer on the Wicklow Mountains
Don't forget that deer are very busy at Christmas . They are getting ready to pull Santa's sleigh bringing lots of presents to all the children of the world on Christmas morning. The deer that pull the sleigh are reindeer and they live in Lapland.
If you click on the picture you can see how to make these deer masks.
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By the pupils of St. Saviour's N. S. Rathdrum