University of Chicago Press Journals image: A male roe deer in hard antler. view more Credit: (photograph by Olivier Villa) Why are male ungulate antlers and horns so large?

Photo: Eva Klevska, National Geographic — Slovenia. It may look like something right out of a fantasy book, but it’s very real: It’s the remains of a roe deer that was recently shot in Slovenia.

Male deer of most species are larger than females. Having antlers is one of the traits that make deer distinctive from horned animals in the antelope family, including cows, goats, sheep and bison.

Normally, roe deer are shy animals and the first sign of their presence is the tell-tale flash of white from their fleeing rumps as they bound away, often stopping after a hundred yards or so to ...

Cases like this [of the roe deer] where there’s no apparent response, are obviously worrying.” Male roe deer on the left, female on the right. Photo by: Creative Commons 3.0.

Hunters will be allowed to shoot deer at night as population numbers surge to two million The number of deer living in the UK has reached its highest level for 1,000 years Rules on shooting wild ...

Peter Clark, Scotland Director of BASC said: “We agreed for the Scottish Government to permit the use of light intensifying, heat sensitive or other special sighting devices to shoot deer at night and ...