How Long Do Deer Live (And Why)?

How Long Do Deer Live (And Why)?

Exact Answer: 11-12 Years

The deer is also known as true deer. They are ruminant mammal who belongs to the Cervidae family. There are two groups of deer called Cervinae, and Capreoline. The first group Cervinae includes muntjac, the elk, the red deer, and fallow deer. The second group of deers includes reindeer, white-tailed deer, the roe deer, and the Moose. The male deer (except Chinese water deer), and all the reindeer female deer have an extension on their head known as antlers.

These antlers grow and shed off with time each year. There are permanently horned antelope deer, which belong to a different family called Bovine.

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How Long Do Deer Live?

The deers are spread in almost every variety of biomes from tundra to the tropical rainforest. Many deers are ecotone species, who lives between the two biological community. Ecotone species are the deer who lives in a place where two community meets or migrates. They live in the transition area between the forests, and thickets, and prairie and savanna.

The majority population of the deer lives in the habitats like the deciduous forest, mountain mixed coniferous forest tropical seasonal/dry forest, and savanna forest habitats all over the world. The deers are mostly attracted to grasslands as they eat grasses, weeds, and herbs that grow in the world. The deers are present almost in every biome, except the continents like Antarctica, and Australia.

The varieties of deer are distributed in areas, like in Africa there is only one native deer called Barbay stag, which is a subspecies of the red deer. The red deer is found mainly in the Atlas Mountains in the northwest parts of the continents. There are many groups of deers that are extinct from the earth like Megacerodis Algericus which were found in North Africa about 6000 years ago.

The area where the most deers are found in the parts of North America like Canadian Rocky Mountain, Columbia Mountain. The region between Alberta and British Columbia is the area where all the five North American deers like a present like white-tailed deer, mule deer, caribou, elk, and moose species. There are many national parks in the area of British Columbia like Mount Revelstoke National Park, Glacier National Park, Yoho National Park, and Kootenay National Park where deers are kept safe.

Animal Life Span
Deer11-12 Years
Elephant70 Years
Crocodile45 Years
Tortoise152 Years

Why Does Deer Live That Long?

The deers are wild animals living in dense forests. They are herbivores animals who only eat green grass, herbs, and weeds. They do not eat flesh, as they are vegetation. They are an important part of an ecosystem to balance the flow of energy from one level to another level. Which balances the chain of environment, and proper working of the atmosphere with adequate energy flow.

The ten percent law states that when organisms consume 10% of the energy in the food or flesh is always available for the next tropical level. When a carnivorous or omnivorous animal eats an animal like deer, then only 10% of the energy is fixed in its flesh for the next level. This 10% energy goes back to the environment only, when the carnivorous animal dies it gets decomposed by the small organisms present in the soil. This decomposition process will provide the 10% energy back to the soil, this complete chain is called a food chain.

The environmental changes in the earth’s atmosphere lead to changes in the ecosystem also which bring some changes in the food chain also. These changes are due to human activities like pollution, deforestation, and depletion of natural resources at a high pace. Global warming in the earth is getting increasing day by day which affects animals badly, as they are not able to get water to drink.

Conclusion

The forest is getting cut off by humans begins for getting woods, making houses, industries, and setting up factories in the name of development. These human activities are snatching homes of wild animals making them homeless. The animals are getting killed by humans for their skin, horns, and teeth which are used for illegal trading.

References

  1. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2006.02861.x
  2. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3830602
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