Är du Naturligt nyfiken?

Är du Naturligt nyfiken?

Can fallow deer males recognize and protect their sons? My wife and I live in southern Sweden, on Linderödsåsen outside Kristianstad in Skåne. We are both 70+ and we live in a house with a large garden, 11545 square meters (2,85 acres), in the middle of nature with beech forest around, also spruce. This means that we get a lot of visits from different animals, such as fallow deer. A few words from my wife: My name is Kristina. I come from a family of veterinary people. An uncle of mine, Karl Borg, was a professor of wild life pathology. He also had the care of the animals at Skansen Zoo in Stockholm. All my life I have studied animals as well as plants, drawing them, painting them, sculpting them. To me art and natural sciences are closely linked together, I can´t have the one without the other. So work and studies have encompassed – work in the field (plants) and studies at University (zoology) and art schools. From my mother I got the gift of ”scrutinizing” animals, seeing what two individuals have in common, or not in common. Living as we do now with birds, insects, mammals and so on as our neighbours is a privilege we both enjoy. We never tire of watching what takes place outside our windows. We are both very interested in nature, and we have read with great interest Professor Frans de Waal's books Our inner ape, The Bonobo and the Atheist and Mama's Last Hug. In Our inner ape it is mentioned that 'it is common in several animal species for males to favor the young born of females they themselves have had sex with, in order to protect their own offspring'. In this way, the possibilities for one's own genes to spread further are improved. Over the years, we have had lots of visits from fallow deer in our garden, and we think we can note that such favoring occurs in fallow deer. Here is a little about our 'unscientific' observations as amateurs, with accompanying pictures in a slideshow. The fallow deer in the area have learned that our garden is a quiet place, and several does come every year to let their fawns play on our lawn during spring and summer. In the autumn, male deer are also attracted here, all enjoying apples and chestnuts from the trees. In the autumn of 2019, an adult male deer came during the mating season to look for hinds. He was not interested in having disturbing little boys nearby, and could be quite harsh on the yearlings who were here with their mothers. 2020 was a fantastic 'deer year' for us, several does came with their fawns and had ”preschool” for them. One doe had twins, both male. We named them the Funbrothers. They were inseparable, and did not miss opportunities to play, running and butting, with each other and with other fawns. In september, an adult male deer came. He was very kind to the calves, he almost held lessons for the FunBrothers and showed off his antlers. A case of 'I will teach him all I know', we named him Baloo. We wondered if he had a friendly buck as a role model as a small fawn Bucks aged two to three also came to eat good grass, apples and chestnuts. And spar, of course! There were many playful battles. The fawns carefully studied how the battles went, and then tried them themselves. In October, a capital deer presented himself. He did not tolerate other males, they kept a respectful distance to him. It was a very dark deer, he was named Black-Pete. One day the Funbrothers came up from the forest and lay down to rest in our garden, their mother was still in the forest. After a long while we saw how they heard something behind them and got up. Suddenly Black-Pete emerged from the bushes. We wondered how it would go for the Brothers Bus who were alone. But we did not have to worry. Black-Pete was tired after all the courting and lay down to rest in the sunshine. We could notice that the FunBrothers were impressed by Black-Pete's antlers, and suddenly one of them practically stepped into the lying Black-Pete's ornament! He licked reverently on the crown, and after a while he could not hold back, he tried to butt the ornament! Black-Pete lay completely undisturbed, letting him keep at it. It was an amazing experience! When we later saw a film with gorillas, where a silver back lets a couple of kids use him as a bouncy castle and drum, it was impossible not to immediately connect the scene with Black- Pete and the FunBrothers . Link to the gorillas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbCMq_uKQFY Link to slide show Can male fallow deer recognizze their sons? Link to our private site: https://linnekulla.se Two different ways a buck treat fawns: (Click for bigger pictures) Our question: Can male fallow deer recognizze their sons?