Cervus elaphus

The red deer (Cervus elaphus) is the largest wild ungulate found in the Italian Alps. Widespread across much of Europe, it was reintroduced to the Aosta Valley in the 1980s and is now present in stable populations in the western part of the region.

The red deer is the largest ruminant herbivore found in Italy, measuring 180–250 cm in length and 95–135 cm at the withers; their weight averages between 160–210 kg for males and 90–130 kg for females, with exceptional males that can exceed 250 kg. The coat is reddish-brown in summer and greyish in winter, with white patches on the backs of fawns in their first year. Only males bear antlers, a branched bony structure that sheds every spring and regrows by summer, developing an increasing number of points as the animal ages.

Globally, the species is classified as ‘Least Concern’ by the IUCN Red List, with a wide range and a large, stable population. In Italy, the conservation status differs from the global one: the nominal subspecies C. e. elaphus, found in the Alps, is managed as a huntable species subject to regional culling plans, whilst the distinct Sardinian-Corsican subspecies (C. e. corsicanus) is a strictly protected species under Law 157/1992, with criminal penalties for killing, capturing or keeping it. In the Aosta Valley, the management of the species, including culling plans, falls under the remit of the Region’s Directorate for Flora, Fauna, Hunting and Fishing.

In Italy, the nominal subspecies had been reduced, due to hunting and deforestation, to the point where it probably survived only in the Stelvio National Park; from there, the species then spontaneously recolonised the central-eastern Alpine arc. In the western Alps, including Piedmont and the Aosta Valley, the species had, however, been extinct for centuries: its current presence is the result of targeted reintroductions using specimens from France, carried out since the 1980s. Capture and radio-collaring studies carried out by the Region’s Department of Flora, Fauna, Hunting and Fishing in the Great St Bernard Valley and Valpelline document the mobility and home ranges of the population in that area, where the species is most prevalent; in the rest of the region, the species is found sporadically, with direct sightings also reported in the Saint-Vincent and Châtillon areas during the spring and summer months. The species is also present in the Gran Paradiso National Park, where it arrived mainly as a result of reintroductions in the lower Aosta Valley.

The red deer prefers tall-growing forests or coppiced woodland interspersed with clearings, cultivated fields and meadows, avoiding steep rocky slopes and persistent snow cover. It is predominantly nocturnal and crepuscular, remaining hidden in the thick of the forest during the day. Its social organisation is essentially matriarchal: in winter, individuals gather in large mixed herds, whilst in summer the females separate into small groups with the yearlings. Between September and November, during the rutting season, dominant males form and defend a harem of females, using vocalisations (bellowing) as territorial signals and to attract mates.

The red deer differs from the roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), a sympatric species in the Aosta Valley, in its significantly larger size and its antlers, which are much more developed and branched than the roe deer’s short antlers; it is also distinguished from the fallow deer (Dama dama, less common in the western Alps) by the absence of a palm-shaped antler structure and by the adults’ coat, which lacks spots.

Fact sheet

Common name: red deer (noble deer)
Scientific name: Cervus elaphus Linnaeus, 1758
Species: artiodactyl mammal (Cetartiodactyla), ruminant
Family: Cervidae
Distribution: Europe, central-western Asia and North Africa (historical range); introduced populations also in North America and other non-European areas
Habitat: deciduous and mixed forests with clearings and open areas, forest ecotones in temperate regions
Diet: herbivore, intermediate grazers and browsers; diet consisting mainly of grasses, supplemented by buds, leaves and bark during the winter months