Cervidae Deer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Native species are present in all continents, except Antarctica and Australia, with the largest concentration of species in Asia. In Africa, antelope have replaced deer in almost the entire continent, with the exception of the Atlas Mountains in the north-western corner, where the native Barbary stag, a subspecies of red deer (Cervus elaphus), is found. Fallow deer (Dama dama) have been introduced to South Africa.

Deer appear in mythologies of numerous cultures, and artwork, depicting deer, is present throughout their distribution area.

A large number of deer species, including all mentioned below, are described in depth on the page Animals – Mammals: Deer.

 

Deer are often kept in parks due to their beauty and grace, in other places for meat production.

For thousands of years, deer antlers in velvet have been an important ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine, utilized for various ailments, including joint and bone problems, and calcium deficiency, and also as a growth tonic for children, as a remedy against old age, and as an aphrodisiac.

Deer penis is reported to have important therapeutic properties. It is sliced into small pieces, roasted, and dried in the sun. In former days, in Taiwan, women were reported to consume deer penis during pregnancy, as it was believed that it would make the mother and child stronger. The Ancient Mayans were also known to roast deer penis, and Greek physician Hippocrates of Kos (c. 460-370 B.C.) recommended it as an aphrodisiac.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A hunter, Actaeon, was one day out hunting with his dogs in the woods, when he noticed Artemis bathing in a river. Hidden in a stag’s pelt, he sneaked up near her, but she saw him and got so angry that a mortal man had seen her naked, that she changed him into a stag. He tried to escape, but was hunted down and killed by his own dogs.

Artemis also avenged the death of a stag, which was sacred to her. It had been killed by King Agamemnon’s men, and as Artemis was able to control the weather, she let a strong wind blow, which kept Agamemnon’s fleet, bound for Troy, confined to port.

 

 

 

 

 

In Irish mythology, Sadb was a beautiful young girl, daughter of the king of the Síd tribe of Munster. She gained the attention of a mighty druid, named Fer Doirich, who wanted her as his bride, but she was still a maiden and refused his advances, which enraged him so much that he turned her into a doe, so that she could be hunted down by wolves. The poor girl ran into the forest where she lived for 3 years.

Finn mac Cumhail was the leader of Ireland’s heroic band of warriors, the Fianna. One day he was out hunting with his hounds Bran and Sceolan. He cornered a beautiful hind, but the hounds refused to kill it. He brought her back to his land, where she regained her true form as Sadb. They married, but shortly afterwards Finn had to leave to defend his country. While he was away, the druid Fer Doirich again turned her into a deer. Though the Fianna searched the land far and wide, they were not able to find Sadb.

Some years later, on another hunting trip, Finn mac Cumhail’s party tracked down a fawn, but again his trusty hounds refused to kill the prey. When they took it to their home, it changed into a boy, and Finn realized that this was his son. He named him Oisin, meaning ‘fawn’. Oisin later became a great warrior in the Fianna.

 

 

 

 

 

The Celts believed that a white stag (also called white hart) would appear when one would violate a taboo. In Welsh mythology, Pwyll Pen Annwn, lord of Dyfed, mistakenly enters into the realm of Arawn, ruler of the otherworld Annwn. Here he observes white hounds with red ears, feeding on a white stag. Pwyll chases the hounds off, only to learn that the hounds belong to Arawn. To pay for the misdeed, Arawn requests Pwyll to trade places with him for a year and defeat Hafgan, Arawn’s rival, at the end of this time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A woman tells her husband that his two small children by his first marriage, a son and a daughter, will be lost in the woods. When it eventually happens, the children cannot find water anywhere, until they follow the tracks of a fox to where water is welling. However, the sister warns her brother that drinking it will turn him into a fox. They now follow the tracks of a bear to water, but she again warns him not to drink, as the water will turn him into a bear. Following the tracks of a stag to water, she again warns him not to drink, but he is too thirsty and quenches his thirst, which turns him into a golden stag. He carries off his sister in a cradle in his antlers, and makes a nest for her up in a tree, where she grows up.

One day, a prince out riding sees her and falls in love with her. He promises a fortune to whoever will woo that girl for him. An old woman sees the golden stag, but doesn’t know how to address it, so she lures the girl down from the tree by pretending to be foolish with her cook fire, and then carries her off to the prince.

The stag follows them to the prince’s castle, where his sister informs the prince that the stag is her brother, and the prince gives him a fine stable with plenty to eat. The girl marries the prince, and they all live happily, except a gypsy girl who had been the prince’s favourite. She lures the girl into the forest where she falls asleep, exhausted. The gypsy ties her and dresses herself in her clothes and disguises her face before returning to the castle. However, the stag at once knows that she is fake. The prince and his men follows the stag and retrieves the girl. But to pay for her crime, the gypsy girl is stoned to death.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Among Lakota people, Sinte Sapela Win (‘Deer Woman’) is a manifestation of the spirit Anukite. Ite (‘Face’) was the daughter of the first man and first woman. She was a beautiful young woman, and Tate (‘The Wind’) fell in love with her. They married and had quadruplets, who were the Four Winds. Ite wished to become a god and acquired the aid of Inktomi, the trickster spider, who caused the Sun to fall in love with Ite. At a celebration, Ite sat in the place of the Moon, the Sun’s wife. To punish Ite’s disrespect, the Sky cast her down from Heaven to Earth. Half of her face became ugly, and her name became Anukite (‘Double Face Woman’).

 

 

“Bring me the hide of a white deer,” he said, “the price for my daughter is one white deer.” He knew that albino deer were very rare and thus would be very hard to find.

Blue Jay went to Bright Moon and said, “In one moon’s time, I will return with your bride price, and we will be married. This I promise you.” Then he took his best bow and sharpest arrows and went away.

Three weeks later, Blue Jay was hungry, lonely, and much scratched by briars. Then, one night during a full moon, he saw a white deer, who seemed to drift through the moonlight. When the deer was close to where Blue Jay hid, he shot his sharpest arrow, which sank deep into the deer’s heart. But instead of sinking to its knees to die, the deer charged straight toward Blue Jay, with his red eyes glowing and his horns sharp and menacing.

A month passed, and Blue Jay did not return as he had promised Bright Moon. After months of waiting, the tribe decided that he would never return.

But Bright Moon never married, for she had a secret. When the moon was shining as brightly as her name, she would often see a white deer in the smoke of the campfire, running with an arrow in his heart. She believed that the deer would finally fall, and Blue Jay would return.

To this day, white deer are sacred to the Chickasaw people.

 

 

 

 

 

In Hindu mythology, Saraswati, the goddess of learning, often takes the form of a red deer, called Rohit. For this reason, learned men are often sitting on deer skin mats, and they use deer skin as clothing.

A golden deer plays an important role in the great Hindu epic Ramayana. While in exile in the forest, Rama’s fiancée Sita sees a golden deer and demands Rama and his brother Lakshmana to get it for her. The deer is actually a demon named Maricha, who has taken this form to lure Rama and Lakshmana away from Sita in order for his nephew Ravana to kidnap her. (More about this issue on the page Animals – Animals in culture and religion – Mammals: Cercopithecidae.)

 

 

 

 

 

Other pictures from this amazing area are shown on several pages on this website, including Religion: Hinduism, Animals – Animals in culture and religion – Mammals: Elephantidae, and Plants: Ancient and huge trees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Daoism, which is a unique blend of Buddhism and ancient animism, deer are often depicted as sculptures or reliefs.

Buddhism is described in depth on the page Religion: Buddhism, and Daoism on the page Religion: Daoism.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As American author and ethnologist Robert Gordon Wasson (1898-1986) amply demonstrates in the classic Flesh of the Gods, one sacred ritual of ancient, pre-Christian Europe centered around a red mushroom, the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria). The powerful, mind-altering properties of this mushroom were so prized by shamans that it was hunted to extinction on the Indian subcontinent. It is hard to exaggerate the importance of this fungus to Western consciousness.

One group of Amanita users who, until the early 1900s, still practiced a late Ice Age lifestyle, were semi-nomadic reindeer herders of far northern Scandinavia and Russia, living in yurts and moving about in reindeer-drawn sleighs. Their shamans wore pointed red hats, symbolizing the mushroom that was their sacrament. The shamans also wore red capes, symbolizing their flight through the air, when they consumed the mushroom on their most sacred night of the year – the Winter Solstice (then December 25). Do you recognize the dress of Santa Claus?

The modern character of Santa was based on traditions surrounding Saint Nikolaos (c. 270-343), in English Nicholas, an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the city of Myra, today called Demre, in the present-day Antalya Province of southern Turkey. Hence the name Santa Claus, a corruption of Nikolaos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Princess Tuvstarr is tired of the restrictions in the castle and asks the moose bull Skutt to carry her into the forest to explore the world. Skutt warns her that there are dangerous forces in the forest, but she ignores it.

Out in the forest she leaves Skutt and roam around. First she meets elven folks, who take her golden crown. Next she meets a hulder, a dangerous female creature, who lead people to ruin. She steals Tuvstarr’s nice white clothes. Finally, she comes to a forest pond, where she loses her golden necklace in the water. Not knowing what to do, she sits down on the shore of the pond, looking into the dark water – a sad wilderness, which symbolizes her lost innocence and home.

When Skutt returns to bring her home, she is nowhere to be found, but on the shore, where she was sitting, grows a plant with white flowers, tuvstarr.*

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deer skins, particularly the skin of the spotted deer, were widely used as garments and meditation mats (asanas) by ascetics and yogis. The Bhagavad Gita mentions a seat covered with deer-skin as ideal for meditation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Danish folklore, the roe deer is most often a symbol of beauty and grace, but also of constant vigilance and shyness. If a doe has lost her fawn, it often calls heartbreaking, which in folklore was seen as an omen of distress or something scary. Fawns, with their spotted coat, were often connected with supernatural creatures like fairies or nisser (a type of benevolent gnome), who were guardians of the forest. Fawns suddenly disappearing into dense cover may have contributed to the mysticism.

In German folklore, the roe deer is mostly depicted as a part of mythical creatures, including the Rasselbock (‘Rattle Deer’ in German), and the Wolpertinger.

The Rasselbock is a hybrid, with the head and body of a rabbit, but with antlers like a roe deer. It is said to be a shy, nocturnal animal, though it can be dangerous when cornered. The American Jackalope is a similar mythological figure.

The Wolpertinger is a creature in Bavarian folklore, typically with the body of a rabbit or squirrel, roe deer antlers, pheasant wings, and duck feet. Creations of this ‘animal’ are sold as souvenirs in Bavaria, and the Deutsches Jagd- und Fischereimuseum in Munich has a permanent exhibit on the creature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Traditionally, sambar hunting was a royal sport in India, and deer skins were considered auspicious for reading sacred texts or for decoration. However, this led to excessive hunting, and numbers decreased. Today, in most of its native area, populations have also declined substantially, mainly due to hunting and habitat destruction.

The name of this deer is derived from Sanskrit Sambara, a demon slain by the rain god Indra. The connection to the deer is hard to see. In one of his former lives, the great sage Jad Bharat was a sambar deer, which links it to wisdom and reincarnation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At an early stage, the common fallow deer was reintroduced to deer parks all over Europe, and recently it has also been introduced to many other countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and the United States. It often forms feral populations and is common in many areas.

In the 1200s, the island of Romsø, near Funen, Denmark, was the property of the king. He introduced fallow deer from Turkey and released them on this island as a hunting object. Here, there were no wolves to prey on the deer, which was the case in most areas of Denmark in those days. Today, a large herd of fallow deer are roaming the island, which is a private reserve.

 

 

 

 

 

The name mule deer refers to its rather large ears, reflected in the specific name, derived from Ancient Greek hemionos (‘mule’). The two names of this deer indicate the main differences between this species and the white-tailed deer (below).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has also been introduced elsewhere, including Cuba, Jamaica, the Czech Republic, New Zealand, and Finland, and is regarded as an invasive species in the latter two countries.

In many parts of North America, this species has spread beyond control, and despite its status as a native species, it is often considered invasive. As far back as in the 1949, in his book A Sand County Almanac, environmentalist Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) wrote: “I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer.”

In August 2012, The Bloomberg View published a staff editorial, entitled: “Deer Infestation Calls for Radical Free-Market Solution.”

About two months later, The Wall Street Journal ran a story, entitled: “America Gone Wild,” noting the impact of overabundant deer.

The Nature Conservancy then noted: “No native vertebrate species in the eastern United States has a more direct effect on habitat integrity than the white-tailed deer. (…) In many areas of the country, deer have changed the composition and structure of forests by preferentially feeding on select plant species.”

On the other hand, the Key deer, which lives only in the Florida Keys, is endangered. It is the smallest subspecies, clavium.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The role of the reindeer in Christianity is described above.