RED DEER ON THE SCANDINAVIAN PENINSULA

Many papers have been written on this subject, but the conclusion of what seems to be known is lacking . Most Swedish papers have been written, assuming, without real scientific foundation, that the Scanian population has an exclusive primordial status in zoology. This can be doubted. The mix-up might be less pregnant than on the continent - but never the less a mix-up it is.

Geography

The Scandinavian Peninsular covers the 2 nations, Sweden and Norway, and stretches over more than 2000 km north-south. Only furthest north there is a landborder to Finland and Russia. The Peninsular was connected with the continent via Denmark but some 6.000 years ago the straits, Öresund and the Belts were formed. The Baltic Sea was, for some time, a big lake.

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Early, postglacial, migration

Following the withdrawal of the ice, the Peninsular was invaded by species of fauna and flora, suitable to the climate. The Red Deer assumes to have returned postglacial some 10.000 years ago and is said to have migrated along the West Coast and due to the mild coastal climate, further north into Norway, than into Sweden. Some scientists claim that it wandered over a dried out and frozen Atlantic or even drifted on some ice-floe. A later migration is agreed upon as excluded.

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Classification

Mid 18th century the Swedish doctor and natural scientist, Carl von Linné, started to systemize nature, sorting plants and animals into groups and giving them latin names. The Red Deer was given the name Cervus elaphus and since Linné used the Red Deer found in Sweden for classification, some people regard the Swedish Red Dear as primordial thus having the "right" to be named CERVUS ELAPHUS ELAPHUS L.

It is assumed (Markgren) that Linné sighted Red Deer in the province of Scania, but in the travelling reports Linné says he sighted the deer on the island of Öland, thus making it plausible that he saw royal park deer. The kings at that time kept many parks with red deer and the habit amongst princes and kings in Europe to present each others with all kind of animals like European bison, Moose, Rendeer, Red and Fallow Deer, makes it hard to prove what origin the Linné Cervus elaphus really had, thus causing the first uncertainty. Since Linné, scientists have been busy to split up Cervus elaphus into sub-species.

LÖNNBERG (1906), referring to skull-measurements, suggests 3 sub-species in addition to the already existing, thus making a list of 6.

In the 90-th Bruce Banwell of New Zealand, although warned by geneticists, suggests an additional sub - species - the Pannonicus.

In the 50-th (actually as early as in the 20-th) European scientists start doubting the split-up in sub-species, since the material used for the studies had been too small and too much consideration had been given to form and size of the trophies the variations found between populations are of a dignity that should be accepted as natural within one species.

In Sweden in the 40-th, a group of "salvators" claimed that the small population in Scania had to be saved, due to the fact, that it was the primordial Cervus elaphus elaphus that had existed for 6.000 years without mixing with other populations and served Linné for classification. Linné, however, gives no detailed description of the deer - thus adding to the uncertainty.

The claim that the straits stopped and still stop migration of Red Deer is not a very clever statement. Every schoolkid in Sweden used to learn how the Swedish king Carl X Gustaf, 1658, brought the entire Swedish army from northern Germany up to the gates of Copenhagen - marching over the frozen Belts. Personally I was walking on the ice between Helsingborg and Helsingör 1940.

These 2 occasions can not have been the only times during 6.000 years that Red Deer could have walked over to Scandinavia.

Besides that - Red Deer is an extremely good swimmer and end 1950, two good stags got a lot of publicity when they -coming from Denmark - landed north of Helsingborg.

How many Red Deers have, for the last 6.000 years, swam to Sweden without being reported by journalists?

One of the stags was sent to the Scanian genom bank for production purpose and sired for many years. According to the Scanian theory, he should have been a bastard and thus should have ruined the genom bank. The "salvators" did not react.

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Norway

In Norway, around 1900, Red Deer was hardly found on the mainland, wolves and bears said to have chased them out to island refuges.

At this time 17 Red Deer were delivered from Greiz (Prince Reuss) and let out on OTTERÖEN . For sampling purposes this might be an interesting information. Ingebrigtsen (Norway) classifies in the 20th the Hitra Deer as a typical undernourished island animal.

After predators had become scarce on the mainland, it did not take long untill Red Deer had spread over southern Norway and even appeared in Sweden (occasionally shot as moose calves). About 10.000 of them are now shot yearly in Norway compared to 600 in Sweden.

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Sweden

In Sweden around 1900 there were no more than 100 free-ranging individuals (Lönnberg) left, all of them taking refuge on the large estates in Scania, east of Malmö.

The well-known animal photographer and self-learned zoologist, Bengt Berg, made an attempt to move part of the Scanian population further north where they might cause less harm than in the spruce monocultures on the estates. He found no interested party to house them and was not even given permission to catch Scanian deer.

In the 50th an animal park was established in the center of Scania (Höör) with the intention to hold native Nordic animals. Cervus elaphus belonged to the choosen species and the "salvators" repeatedly refers to this park as the genome bank for Cervus elaphus elaphus.

In the meantime Berg had started " experiments with deers" in Eriksberg, Province of Blekinge. He bought animals from many sources. The Stockholm Zoo, Skansen, delivered one "pure" Scanian male and females from Hagenbeck.

Red Deer enclosures were established on many places, some even with Wapiti bastards, that eventually broke out and to-day the idea of Berg has come true - free-ranging red deer is found in the region between Stockholm and Gothenburg, many mingled with animals broken out from enclosures, many of which have been supplied by Eriksberg.

Till today, the "salvators" have not been impressed by anything indicating they are wrong. One would assume they would give up the idea that Scania has an exclusive Cervus elaphus elaphus - but as late as 1989 a local paper calls for salvation help (signed by the leading "salvator"), referring to the Bernese convention.

No doubt, the Scanian population needed some sort of help, because the sprucefield owners might have loved the Deer for hunting but they would have adored him if he fed with the neighbour.

The hunting pressure was hard and not very selective.

For a long time a self-financed compensation for damage caused by moose had been paid, but a similar way of solving the Red Deer survival was no object for discussion with authorities handling the Red Deer situation. The Red Deer showed very little urge to migrate - size of population being stable.

Around 1960 authorities finally showed interest to discuss possibilities to help the Scanian Deer. The arguments for a salvation plan are somewhat peculiar and obviously without scientific foundation. It was assumed that the Scanian had lived 6.000 years without any alien blood whatsoever, thus making it the sole "pureblooded" European Red Deer left.

The rest of the Europeans are bastards - actually not very far from the truth, but still.

The Government appoints a "Council for Red Deer" to sort things out. Most of the members are "salvators".

A sanctuary, without fence, of some 45.000 Hectars was agreed upon and was established to be run for 10 years, starting 1971. Within the sanctuary the culling plans were very strict, outside they were not specified. At this time an extensive report showing no skull differences between Danish and Scanian Deer is made available - the "Council" does not take notice.

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Sweden today

Ending the trial period a genetic investigation was carried out. Samples were asked for from Swedish populations and together with Norwegian, Scottish and German samples analyzed.

The work was severely criticized for, among other things, unscientific sample collection - no registration of what animal had delivered the sample was made.

The work (Gyllensten et al 1982) showed that all Swedish populations, with the exception of the Eriksberg herd, showed high degree of genetic identity.

Since many of the free-ranging populations drawn into the work have been established with animals originally from Eriksberg the result certainly is very peculiar.

Samples drawn from 2 populations in Norway show no genetic relation to Greiz (germanicus). The Government decides that the animals in the sanctuary do not have to be isolated for salvation purposes but the Eriksberg Deer should not be allowed to escape.

It already did - long ago. Red Deer in the Province of Blekinge are escapees from Eriksberg and they are on their way south to meet the Scanians coming north. They most probably met by now.

And in the the trial periode stags from Eriksberg are said to have been introduced into the sanctuary.

That might, together with the culling rules, have helped trophies to improve . Gyllensten showed that Swedish free ranging population do not differ genetically, but still calls the Scanian population Cervus elaphus elaphus and "nominate species".

The case is closed and "any conference on the Nominate Red Deer will be an epitaph over a lost case" (Dahl, member of the Council,1989).

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Little discussed peculiarity

In all these - mostly unscientific - discussions, one morphological peculiarity had been left out or was not known.

Lönnberg (1906) points out that the Scanian population, contrary to all other known to him, does not have a dark line around the caudal disc, in some cases do not even have a caudal disc at all.

Linné himself says nothing about it (Fauna Suecica 1758). Bengt Berg mentions it in his book (in the 40-th), but he also complains about the Scanians "not knowing were to put the tines".

Niethammer (Handbook .... 1986) claims "the Swedish Red Deer having no caudal disc".

L. Heck describes the Red Deer, visiting Övedskloster (Scania) in the 30-th, "reddish brown with no caudal disc".

A survey of some 100 saved coats from Scanian Deer showed 50% no dark line/no caudal disc.

A trophy exhibition in the 30th showed antlers with 8-10 tines (100 years trophy collection), very seldom 12 and no crown to be found.

In the 60-th, Prince Reuss visited the blood bank of the "nominate" Cervus elaphus in Höör. Without making one mistake, he picked out the offsprings from the Dane. Count Hamilton, running the park, was a bit puzzled, since Swedish scientists had to slaughter and measure the sculls to find the difference between Scanian and continental Deer. Prince Heinrich picked them on the caudal disc. Nobody in the Red Deer council registered this.

Could there be a connection between no caudal disc and poor antlers? Ecotype? Geotype? Degeneration?

Deer of both types could be found free ranging and in Höör and Eriksberg (1990). The genetic tests (Gyllensten) showed some strange parallels in samples from Eriksberg. Since these sample came from stags being culled due to poor antlers these parallels could be significant for the original Scanian species. If this was the case the trial period with the culling system prescribed has undoubtedly rubbed out any ecotype that might have been prevailing free-ranging ( The Dahl epitaph)

Bruce Banwell writes a lot on caudal discs in Deer Farmer and also shows a photo of a stag from a research station outside Trondheim with a black stripe (dorsal strip) along the neck and on to the back - like the fjord horses. He names it atlanticus.

In a paper at the Red Deer seminar in Salzburg 1999, Dr.Wölfel of Göttingen shows a picture of a stag from Harz with exactly the same black stripe. Any significance?

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Sources

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Suggested sub-species

Edited 1990 and revised 1999
Kristian Wendt

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