The Deer is a noble, beautiful and elegant animal and until a few years ago its hunting was considered elitist. Today things have rather changed: thanks to selection hunting, trying to catch deer is not a privilege of a few, but of all those who have what it takes to do so.
Inserted within well-studied culling plans, with the aim of protecting the species, deer catches have multiplied in recent decades, but unfortunately this does not always mean a complete knowledge of the species. Deer, fallow deer and roe deer, it is important to remember, are part of the same family of deer whose correct name is cervus elaphus; in Italy there is the cervus elaphus hippelaphus and the cervus elaphus corsicanus. We find it practically everywhere, also thanks to its strong adaptability to the environments in which it finds itself living. You can meet deer in the Alps, in the Apennine areas, in the Abruzzo National Park, in Sardinia, in Garfagnana but not only. In short, in Italy today there are about 40 - 50 specimens. A remarkable figure if you consider that at the beginning of the twentieth century the species was literally about to disappear.
Once present not only in the mountains and in the forests as today, but also in the plains and hills, with the exponential hunting interest in the deer, during the first decades of the last century, this one had to take refuge in increasingly inaccessible areas to survive .
Today, the repopulation is gradual but constant. All thanks to the selection hunt which, following rather serious censuses, estimates the number and type of specimens that can be sacrificed for the protection of the same species. Too many populations, we will see, affect the health of the group, putting their existence in jeopardy.
Sick deer: how to recognize them. Recognizing a sick deer for a hunter is quite important. You forget a lot of what you have read in the books: the important thing is to focus on the animal.
This in fact sends out unequivocal signals that it is practically impossible to misunderstand. Here are what they are:
• ease of approach;
• disheveled coat due to lack of moulting or an abnormal moult;
• dirty mirror due to, for example, chronic diarrhea;
• very prominent bone structure;
• cough and nasal discharge;
• movements less elegant than usual;
• lowered ears.
The diseases of the deer. Analyzing the symptoms on the above it is very easy to guess something more about the state of health of the specimen being chased.
The diseases affecting deer, on the other hand, except for some specific cases, are very similar to those of all ruminants which always react to the disease in the same way: isolating themselves from the group and waiting for the end in solitude. Therefore, meeting an unusually solitary deer should sound an alarm bell in the hunter's head.
The reasons for the disease. The reasons for deer disease are almost always the same:
• high density of animals;
• scarce availability of food;
• climate;
• stress.
The advice, therefore, is to carefully observe the details: it is a skill that can make the difference between a professional hunter and a novice hunter. Attention is therefore a must: it is a form of respect for this elegant and dignified animal to which so many hunters owe unforgettable hunting days.