Fallow Deer, medium-sized deer characterized by fallow (pale yellow) color and by palmate antlers lacking a bay antler, or second spike. The fallow deer, found wild in western Asia and southern Europe, is about 1 m (about 3 ft) high at the shoulders, and spotted white in summer. A larger, brighter species found in Iran and northern Africa can be partially tamed, and in Great Britain this species has often been kept in private parks. The bucks and does live apart until the mating season, which is usually in October; in June the does usually bear one fawn, but occasionally two or three.

In prehistoric times a huge deer with antlers of the fallow-deer type existed in Ireland, England, northern and central Europe, and western Asia. Known as the giant deer, giant fallow deer, or Irish deer, this species had a shoulder height similar to the Alaskan moose, and bore antlers having a spread of more than 3 m (10 ft) from tip to tip. It is thought to have died out about 11,000 years ago. Evidence of the species was discovered in Ireland in 1588, and a painting of a deer identified as the giant deer was later found on a cave wall in France. Thus the species was probably contemporary with early humans.

Scientific classification: The fallow deer is classified as Dama dama. The larger species found in Iran and northern Africa is classified as Dama mesopotamica.

Deer, common name for certain hoofed, artiodactyl mammals, usually characterized by bony, often branching antlers that are shed and regenerated annually. Deer range through the Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The largest populations occur in mixed wooded and open land, although deer also live in swamps, on mountains, and on northern tundras. Deer species range in size from the European elk, or moose (see Elk), which may reach a shoulder height of 2.35 m (7.7 ft), to the South American pudu, which can be as little as 25 cm (10 in) high at the shoulder. The first deer appeared in the early Oligocene epoch in Asia, about 38 million years ago.

Deer commonly have lithe, compact bodies and long, powerful legs suited for rugged woodland terrain. They are also excellent swimmers. Their lower cheek teeth have crescent ridges of enamel, which enable them to grind a wide variety of vegetation. The animals are ruminants, or cud chewers, and have a four-chambered stomach. Nearly all deer have a facial gland, in front of each eye, that contains a strongly scented substance, or pheromone, used to mark its home range. The males of many species open these glands wide when angry or excited. All deer except the musk deer have a liver without a gallbladder. The musk deer, along with the Chinese water deer, also differs from other species in that it has no antlers and bears upper canines that have developed into tusks.