The Persian Fallow Deer (Dama mesopotamica) is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. It is treated here as its own species, but it is also often described as a subspecies of Fallow Deer and named Dama dama mesopotamica.
Description
Persian fallow deer are bigger than fallow deer, their antlers bigger and less palmated.
They are nearly extinct today, inhabiting a small habitat in Khuzestan, southern Iran and an island in Lake Urmia in northern Iran. 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.
History
Persian fallow deer were introduced into Cyprus in the pre-pottery Neolithic (PPNA). Bones were found in Khirokitia and Enkomi .
A Greek legend, related by Aelianus ca 200 AD, recounts how the deers of the Lebanon and Mount Carmel reached Cyprus by swimming the Mediterranean, the head of each animal placed on the back of the deer in front of it.
Deer from Epirus in Greece are said to have reached Corfu in the same manner. While red deer are known to cross open water in their seasonal migrations, for example on the Scottish islands, this behaviour is unknown in fallow deer.
Persian fallow deer had been considered extinct in 1951, before a small population was discovered in Khuzestan.
Sources
- Juliet Clutton-Brock, A natural history of domesticated animals (London, British Museum 1978)
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