The roe deer is an ungulate widespread in Europe and Asia. It is very fast and lives on high plateaus and mountains.
The roe deer is a small deer.
It is red to brown in colour, its snout turning grey; its coat is tawny in summer. The throat, ventral parts and perianal region, known as the 'anal mirror', are white. The tail is very short and does not emerge from the fur; in the female there is a tuft of cream-coloured hair covering the genital apparatus, called the 'false tail'. The male has small antlers, usually with three points on each side in adult individuals; these fall off every year, from October to December, and grow back at the end of the winter. The antlers are made of bone tissue.
It eats several times a day. The diet consists of various grasses, bark, leaves, shoots of broad-leaved trees, conifers and fruits.