Roe Deer Hunting in Belarus

The Roe Deer is a relatively small deer, with a body length of 95-135 cm and a weight of 15-30 kg. It keeps basically in the woods rich with an underbrush.

Only the males have antlers. The first and second set of antlers are unbranched and short 5-12 cm, while older bucks in good conditions develop antlers up to 20-25 cm long with two or three, rarely even four, points. When the male's antlers begin to regrow, they are covered in a thin layer of velvet-like fur which disappears later on after the hair's blood supply is lost. Males may speed up the process by rubbing their antlers on trees, so that their antlers are hard and stiff for the duels during the mating season. Unlike most cervids, roe deer begin regrowing antlers almost immediately after they are shed.

The most successful hunting can be after rains when roe deer escape from a wood thaw and are dried on lawns and wood edges.