Monday, 27-Feb-12 23:08:00 CET

Roe Deer

The roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) are hanging around the house at Sunnerås. In the summer when the cows are here then the roe deer don’t show up so easily but now in the winter they rule this place. The animal is graceful. I don’t understand the benefit of the bright white spot on their rear end. It cannot be for the cleanliness. The rest of the body is melting in nicely with the environment but that white spot you cannot miss.

The roe deer mostly eat grass, leaves, berries and young shoots. It likes young and tender grass. It doesn’t like the grass where cows and sheep’s are held because that grass is not so clean. So I am told but how can anyone find out such knowledge? You cannot just walk to the roe deer and ask them, can you? Is it so that a scientist made experiments on the cleanliness level of grass and how well it was eaten by roe deer? I guess that these are that kind of things that some people knows without knowing how they know it.

Roe deer are marked as a Least Concern type of animal by IUCN. That is nice. There is so much in the world to be concerned about so it is extra nice that these animals are in the category least concern. The big photo I made on 26 February and the small photo DW made on 27 February at Sunnerås.

The Latin name of the roe deer is Capreolus capreolus. In Swedish the word “Kapriol” is an older word for a funny looking jump. Especially within folks dance there is a kind of jump where the legs are kicked together. In ballet the term “cabriole” is a jump where one leg is kicked up into the air and the supporting leg pushes off and kicks underneath the gesture leg, propelling it higher. The jump lands on the kicking leg. I would like to see a roe deer do this!