Chamois

Roe deer

Mouflon

Alpine red deer

Chamois Chamois is a smaller bovid 75 cm high at the shoulders. In summer, the fur has a rich brown colour which turns light grey in winter. Winter fur is much thicker, therefore chamois appear robust and stout in winter and slender in summer. Distinct characteristics are a white face with pronounced black stripes below the eyes (called reins), a white rump and a black stripe along the back. Both males and females have short, black, straightish horns which are hooked backwards near the tip. Males, which are one tenth bigger than females, have stronger and more hooked horns, which start growing at birth and are basically a highly vascular spongy tissue covered in a skin called velvet. Older chamois have horns covered in resin, probably as a result of rubbing against spruce and larch bark or dwarf pine. A fully grown chamois weighs between 20 and 30 kilograms.

Read the Full Story

Roe deer The Roe Deer is a relatively small deer, with a shoulder height of 63–67 cm and a weight of around 25kg. It has rather short, erect antlers and a reddish body with a grey face. Its firm hide is golden-red in summer, darkening to brown in winter, with lighter undersides and a white rump patch; the tail is very short and barely visible. The fawns are sand brown with white spots, which start becoming less visible at the age of 6 weeks and completely disappear after the hide change in October. Males have short rough antlers on their forehead. The first and second set of antlers are unbranched and short while older bucks in good conditions develop antlers with two or three, rarely even four, points.

Read the Full Story

Mouflon Mouflon are thickset and strongly built with strong legs, which make them good runners. The males have horns curved in almost one full revolution (up to 1 m). Some females are horned while others lack horns. Males are a bit bigger than females. Their habitat are steep, sunny, mountainous slopes near the tree line, whereas they tend to avoid moist and soft grounds since they cause their hooves to wear.

Read the Full Story

Alpine red deer Alpine red deer is our biggest deer, with a shoulder height of 1.5 meter. It generally has lithe, compact bodies and long, powerful legs suited for rugged woodland terrain. It has a long head with big pointed ears. Their firm is long and brittle, red-brown in summer and grey-brown in winter. Their tail is around 15 cm long. Males have longer hair at the back of their neck called (a mane) and a white rump. Fawns have spots which may, especially on the back, remain visible throughout their life. All male deer have antlers, whereas the females don’t.

Read the Full Story

Alpine red deer

Alpine red deer is our biggest deer, with a shoulder height of 1.5 meter. It generally has lithe, compact bodies and long, powerful legs suited for rugged woodland terrain. It has a long head with big pointed ears. Their firm is long and brittle, red-brown in summer and grey-brown in winter. Their tail is around 15 cm long. Males have longer hair at the back of their neck called (a mane) and a white rump. Fawns have spots which may, especially on the back, remain visible throughout their life. All male deer have antlers, whereas the females don’t.

Young male deer start growing antlers at 12-14 months, which are unbranched at first. They lose their first set of antlers in April when a new stronger and branched set starts growing. They reach their full size in 10 years and consist of 2 branches, each of which has up to 7 spikes, which together form a crown. Branches can grow up to 120 cm and are more or less symmetrical. Antlers grow as highly vascular spongy tissue covered in a skin called velvet. Before the beginning of a species' mating season, the antlers calcify under the velvet and become hard bone. The velvet is then rubbed off leaving dead bone which forms the hard antlers. After the mating season, the pedicle and the antler base are separated by a layer of softer tissue, and the antler falls off. Males weigh up to 250 kg whereas females weigh around 150 kg.

Hunting and the level of difficulty
One can go deer hunting in two ways, be it by stalking or from a lookout. Hunting itself is most exciting during the rut, between September 15 and October 10. Going deer hunting, there is always an option of staying in one of the hunting cabins at the centre of the hunting grounds, which is itself also densely populated with chamois, which share their habitat with deer.

Open season
Males: August 8-December 31
Females and fawns: September 1-December 31
Younger males and females: June 1-December 31