Parco Naturale Regionale Monti Simbruini

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03010 Trevi nel Lazio (FR)

Municipality: Trevi nel Lazio Region: Lazio

Tel. 0774/827219-21
E-mail: promozione.sviluppo@simbruini.it

The roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) is the smallest Italian member of the Cervidae family. It weighs between the 15 and 27 kilos, and the female weighs less than the male. It is about 90-130 cm long, the height at withers is 60-70 cm. Its unmistakable aspect is characterized by a dark snout and by the anal section standing out against the mantle, which in the adults it is gray in winter and tawny-reddish in summer.
During the winter it is possible to distinguish males from females thanks to the differences of the anal section, bean-shaped in the male and upside-down heart-shaped in the female. The new-born roe deer have a mimetic brown color with white spots on the flanks.
Only males have two antlers made of bony tissue that are replaced every year according to a precise pattern, which in adults can be summarized in three stages:

1. Growth, lasting about three months between December and February, during which the bony tissue grows covered with a velvet-like dermic tissue
2. Cleaning, around the end of February, during which the animal clear the antlers from the "velvet"
3. Fall, between October and November, with the loss of the antlers and their regrowing.

The original distribution of the roe deer in Italy involved the whole peninsula, but the lack of conservation strategies in the first half of the latest century led it to the brink of extinction because of the hunting pressure and the reduction of its ideal habitat.
Since the 1960s, the abandonment of the mountains by the rural populations, with the consequent reduction of wild grazing and high-mountain cultivations, the establishment of protected areas, and a greater sensitization also among the hunting groups have enabled the return of conditions suitable for the species. Today, starting from the alpine area, together with several reintroduction activities, the roe deer is repopulating the spaces from where it had been excluded.
The wildlife area, in Trevi nel Lazio, in the heart of the Park, covers about 3 ha and houses a small group of roe deer with the aim to promote the history and biology of the species, so that visitors and nature-lovers can easily discover and respect it. In January 2008, 3 roe deer provided with radio collars and coming from an enclosure (Spoleto Mountain Community) have been introduced. The radio collars have a double function: safety and didactic use.
As a matter of fact, during the visits it will be possible to carry out radiotelemetric monitoring "demonstrations" to illustrate the modalities with which the deer reintroduced in nature are monitored.