鹿科
维基百科，自由的百科全书
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 白尾鹿 Odocoileus virginianus |
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目录 |
[编辑] 分布
鹿廣泛分佈於每個大陸，除了大洋洲、南極洲和非洲之外。澳大利亞有6種在19世紀引進的鹿，它们是：黇鹿、马鹿、水鹿、豚鹿、蒂汶黑鹿和花鹿。但由於環境的限制，只分佈在有限的範圍。
[编辑] 鹿角
通常只有公鹿长角，驯鹿是唯一一种公鹿和母鹿都长角的鹿，但母鹿的角要小得多。在每年冬天，公鹿的角都会脱落，到春天开始长出新的角，那时鹿角会覆盖者一层皮，叫做鹿茸。当鹿角成型时，鹿茸就会脱落。
母驯鹿的角是在春天脱落的。另外，麝和獐无论公的还是母的，都没有角，它们用长长的獠牙去自卫。公麂既有獠牙也有角，而母麂既没有獠牙也没有角。
[编辑] 习性
[编辑] 雪灾
雪是鹿最大的敌人之一。如果雪并不是很大，那到没什么的。但当雪变得非常厚时，它们就很难找到食物，因为雪都把食物盖住了。另外，虽然鹿跑得很快，但由于有些鹿的体重可达300公斤，当它们跑时，它们就会陷到雪中，减慢它们的速度。仅50公斤的狼便很容易地追上了它们。
[编辑] 地盘
不像大多数动物，鹿没有固定的家。对鹿来说，所谓的家就是地盘。夜晚它们就睡在灌木丛中。在冬天时，当鹿的地盘覆盖着厚雪时，它们就会再找一个雪相对较浅的地盘。当很多鹿都选这个地盘时，它们就会分地盘。
[编辑] 天敌
[编辑] 自卫
当鹿一旦发现危险时，第一件事情就是跑。如果跑解决不了问题了话，有些公鹿就会用它们的角去战斗。而母鹿的前蹄像刀一样尖，当它们发怒时，它们就会往敌人身上踢。
[编辑] 食物
主要以树叶为食。They have small, unspecialised stomachs by herbivore standards, and high nutrition requirements: ingesting sufficient minerals to grow a new pair of antlers every year is a significant task. Rather than attempt to digest vast quantities of low-grade, fibrous food as, for example, sheep and cattle do, deer select easily digestible shoots, young leaves, fresh grasses, soft twigs, fruit, fungi, and lichens.
[编辑] 饲养
Deer have long had economic significance to humans. While they are generally not as easily domesticated as sheep, goats, pigs, and even cattle, the association between people and deer is very old. Deer meat, for which they are hunted and farmed, is called venison.
[编辑] 杂交鹿
In Origin of Species (1859) Charles Darwin wrote "Although I do not know of any thoroughly well-authenticated cases of perfectly fertile hybrid animals, I have some reason to believe that the hybrids from Cervulus vaginalis and Reevesii [...] are perfectly fertile." These two varieties of muntjac are currently considered the same species.
A number of deer hybrids are bred to improve meat yield in farmed deer. Once considered separate species because of the great differences between them, American Elk (or Wapiti) and Red Deer from the Old World can produce fertile offspring, and are now considered one species. (The European Elk is a different species and is known as moose in North America.) The hybrids are about 30% more efficient in producing antler by comparing velvet to body weight. Wapiti have been introduced into some European Red Deer herds to improve the Red Deer type, but not always with the intended improvement.
In New Zealand, where deer are introduced species, there are hybrid zones between Red Deer and North American Wapiti populations and also between Red Deer and Sika Deer populations. In New Zealand Red Deer have been artificially hybridized with Pere David Deer in order to create a farmed deer which gives birth in spring. The initial hybrids were created by artificial insemination and back-crossed to Red Deer.
In Canada, the farming of European Red Deer and Red Deer hybrids is considered a threat to native Wapiti. In Britain, the introduced Sika Deer is considered a threat to native Red Deer. Initial Sika Deer/Red Deer hybrids occur when young Sika stags expand their range into established red deer areas and have no Sika hinds to mate with. They mate instead with young Red hinds and produce fertile hybrids. These hybrids mate with either Sika or Red Deer (depending which species is prevalent in the area), resulting in mongrelization. Many of the Sika Deer which escaped from British parks were probably already hybrids for this reason.
In captivity, Mule Deer have been mated to White-tail Deer. Both male Mule Deer/female White-tail and male White-tail/female Mule deer matings have produced hybrids. Less than 50% of the hybrid fawns survived their first few months. Hybrids have been reported in the wild but are disadvantaged because they don't properly inherit survival strategies. Mule Deer move with bounding leaps (all 4 hooves hit the ground at once, also called "stotting") to escape predators. Stotting is so specialized that only 100% genetically pure Mule Deer seem able to do it. In captive hybrids, even a one-eighth White-tail/seven-eighths Mule Deer hybrid has an erratic escape behaviour and would be unlikely to survive to breeding age. Hybrids do survive on game ranches where both species are kept and where predators are controlled by man.
[编辑] 动画片或故事书中的鹿
- For role of deer in mythology, see deer in mythology.
- In Christmas lore (such as in the narrative poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas"), reindeer are believed to pull the sleigh of Santa Claus.
- One famous fictional deer is 斑比。Contrary to what most people believe, in the Disney movie Bambi, he is a white-tailed deer, while in Felix Salten's original book Bambi, A Life in the Woods, he is a roe deer.
- 在纳尼亚传奇中，a white stag, said to grant one wish to the one who catches him, misleads the Pevensie children in the forest. Lost, they stumble back through the wardrobe to return to our world, ending their adventure.
- Saint Hubertus saw a stag with a crucifix between its antlers while hunting on Good Friday and was converted to Christianity by the vision.
- In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the Patronus Charm that Harry Potter conjures up to scare away the Dementors is a silver stag. James Potter, Harry's father, had an Animagus form as a stag.
- On the television series Angel, one episode depicts the hart as the last of three animals symbolically representing the evil law firm of Wolfram & Hart.
- In one of the stories of Baron Munchhausen, the baron encounters a stag while eating cherries and without ammunition. He fires the cherry-pits at the stag with his musket, but it escapes. The next year, the baron encounters a stag with a cherry tree growing from its head; presumably this is the animal he had shot at the previous year.
- A Samurai warrior named Honda Tadakatsu famously adorned deer antlers on his helmet.
- Deer has been a subject in Chinese painting numerous times as a tranquility symbol.
