Persian fallow deer

The Persian fallow deer (Dama dama mesopotamica) (gavazn-i zard in Persian) (Yah-mur in modern Hebrew) ( περσικο πλατωνι in Greek) is a rare ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. Its taxonomic status is disputed, with some maintaining it as a subspecies of the fallow deer, while others treat it as a separate species, Dama mesopotamica. Feldhamer et al. (1988) and Geist (1998) included Dama mesopotamica as a subspecies of Dama dama, though it was regarded as a separate species by Haltenorth (1959), Ferguson et al. (1985), Uerpmann (1987), and Harrison and Bates (1991). IUCN follow Pitra et al. (2004) and Randi et al. (2001) in treating D. mesopotamica as a separate species, based on a major study on the evolution and phylogeny of Old World deer. Thus, a majority of scientists consider it as Dama mesopotamica. Moreover, Khuzestan Province, where 25 deer are found, is historically a part of ancient Mesopotamia. Persian fallow deer are physically larger than fallow deer, and their antlers are bigger and less palmated. They are nearly extinct today, inhabiting only a small habitat in Khuzestan, southern Iran, two rather small protected areas in Mazandaran (northern Iran), an area of northern Israel, an island in Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran, and in some parts of Iraq. They were formerly found from Mesopotamia and Egypt to the Cyrenaica and Cyprus. Their preferred habitat is open woodland. They are bred in zoos and parks in Iran, Israel, and Germany today. In 1978, as the Iranian Revolution was unfolding, with the help of Prince Gholam Reza Pahlavi (the Shah's brother) and the chief of the games and wild life of Iran, the Israeli conservationists carried some of the captive fallow deer out of Iran and into Israel for safekeeping. Since 1996, they have been gradually and successfully reintroduced from a breeding center in the Carmel, into the wild in northern Israel, and more than 650 of them now live in the Galilee, Mount Carmel areas and the Brook of Sorek; however, this population is hybridized with D. Dama. The population of Persian fallow deer has become well established in Iran and gradually growing in number in a number of protected parks and zoos. Due to the rarity of this species, little information exists on their behavior and social structure in the wild; therefore, most biological information comes from captive-bred or reintroduced deer, which may not present an accurate representation of the natural population. In the Hebrew Bible Deuteronomy 14:5, the Yahmur is listed as the third species of animal that may be eaten. A wide variety of translations of this verse, and the names of the species in it, have been done over the centuries, yet most authorities agree with the Modern Hebrew designation of the Yahmur as the Persian fallow deer. Studies in zooarcheology have shown that in Biblical times, Persian fallow deer were one of the main species sacrificed at Joshua's altar on Mt. Ebal in the Holy Land, Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University., 13/14: 173-189. They were introduced to Cyprus in the pre-pottery Neolithic (Cypro-PPNB), if not earlier. They occurred in significant numbers at the aceramic Neolithic sites of Khirokitia, Kalavasos-Tenta, Cap Andreas Kastros, and Ais Yiorkis, and were important through the Cypriot Bronze Age. A Greek legend, related by Aelianus around 200 AD, recounts how the deer of the Lebanon and Mount Carmel reached Cyprus by swimming the Mediterranean, the head of each animal placed on the back of the deer in front of it.Now the deer got extinct 400 years ago becouse it was a good source of food for the poor and a great trophy for sultans. Deer from Epirus in Greece are said to have reached Corfu in the same manner. While red deer are known to cross open water in their seasonal migrations, for example on the Scottish islands, this behaviour is unknown in fallow deer. Persian fallow deer were formerly found in Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and eastern Turkey. By 1875, its range was restricted to southwestern and western Iran, having disappeared from the rest of its range. The species, thought to be extinct by the 1940s, was subsequently rediscovered as a population of about 25 individuals in the Khuzestan Province in Iran in 1956. Today, the only surviving indigenous populations are in the Dez Wildlife Refuge and Karkeh Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Iran.