The bambi syndrome

Authors: Sloan WH
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 35, Issue 7, pp 116, Jul 1987
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Deer, Livestock, Production animal, Ruminant
Subject Terms: Species description
Article class: Correspondence

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Abstract: Over recent years I have read, and benefited from, many articles in the New Zealand Veterinary Journal on the subject of red deer. It distresses me that many of the authors (with notable exceptions) refer wrongly to the off-spring of these animals as “fawns”. The red stag and hind mate to produce a “calf”; bucks and does of various other types of deer beget fawns. I feel that if our profession cannot use the correct terms, even in the literature, the task of persuading the lay (deerfarmers) to do so is a lost one. Perhaps in my dotage I am becoming too pedantic and will learn to accept that sows have kittens and bitches calves (equally incorrect terminology) in the not too distant future!

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