From the moment he is born, a red deer calf faces a life-long struggle to survive in his new home — the mountain wilderness of the Austrian Alps. His first six weeks are filled with exploration and discovery of his world, under the watchful eye of his mother. When he is ready, he and his mother journey along age-old migration paths from the forests up to the high mountain meadows, where the beginning of summer brings life and renewal to the slopes. There, they join other red deer mothers and their calves. The stags have already arrived, their antlers covered in tender velvet — and growing quickly.

Featuring panoramic scenes of lush landscapes, Prince of the Alps travels high into the mountains, where chamois and ibex are right at home on the nearly vertical cliffs, marmots emerge late from hibernation, and red deer prove their agility. The little prince enjoys special status in the herd, thanks to his mother’s social rank. She leads him to the best feeding places and teaches him about his new surroundings. His first brush with civilization is a herdsman calling out to his cattle. Unlike drivers on the roads, and the hunters and hikers who also invade their world, the herdsman poses no threat to deer in the mountains. The young calf also learns his first lesson about dangerous weather in the mountains, where storms rage and lighting kills.

In September, the mountains echo with the calls of the great red deer stags. During the six weeks or so of the autumn rut, the stags compete for the chance to father next year’s calves before the seasons change and winter claims the mountains. Snow, ice, cold, and hunger will also claim their share of the herds before spring returns. Many deer find it hard to feed and finding shelter takes all the energy they have.

Seven months into his life, the little prince is left alone and his chances of survival are slim. But when the sights and sounds of spring once again appear, and the red deer mothers and calves make their way up to the high mountain pastures, a one-year-old red deer calf with tiny antlers sets out with them. He has earned his place as Prince of the Alps.

Online content for Prince of the Alps was originally posted May 2008.

General Information

“The Red Deer Cervus elaphus” – World Deer
http://www.worlddeer.org/reddeer.html
This Web site provides information on red deer, including habitat, behavior, and physical description.

“Cervus elaphus” – University of Michigan, Animal Diversity Web
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Cervus_elaphus.html
Additional information on red deer can be found on this site.

“Land of plenty: Austria’s red deer feast on handouts and live half the year in fenced enclosures. Can they still fend for themselves?” – Natural History Magazine
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_10_114/ai_n15970386
This article discusses red deer’s dependence on winter food handouts.

“OECD: Global warming could spell ruin for Alps” – Telegraph.co.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/12/14/ccalps14.xml
This news piece discusses the ramifications of climate change on the European ski industry in the Alps.

“Best Males Have Less Successful Daughters” – Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070705095207.htm
This article relates the results of a study, published in the periodical Nature, that found that the red deer males with the most mating success tended to have less fertile female offspring.

“Why Female Deer Like A Stag To Be A Big Noise In The Forest” – Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070619194453.htm
According to researchers at the University of Sussex, the quality of a male red deer’s mating call is an important factor in sexual selection.

Green Bridges

“Right of Way” – Audubon Magazine
http://audubonmagazine.org/cuttingedge/cuttingedge0306.html
“Every year, all kinds of wildlife, including many endangered species, are killed crossing America’s highways. Now biologists and land planners are teaming up to design ecofriendly roads that animals can traverse without having to risk life and limb.”

“Conservationists Blaze Trails for Wildcats” – Spiegel Online
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,506962,00.html
“Biologists are planning what promises to be Central Europe’s biggest conservation project. They intend to connect all of Germany’s major national parks with woodland corridors to ensure the survival of endangered forest creatures. The wildcat is the poster child of Germany’s new environmental offensive.”

“Of Moose and Mud” – U.S. Department of Transportation
http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/05sep/05.htm
“Why did the moose cross the road? The answer, according to researchers, often is to visit a wet, muddy, mineral deposit on the other side.”

BOOKS & PRINT

Clutton-Brock, T. H., F. E. Guinness, and S. D. Albon. Red Deer: Behavior and Ecology of Two Sexes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.

Krajick, Kevin. “Climate Change: All Downhill From Here?” Science. 12 Mar 2004. Vol. 303. no. 5664, pp. 1600-1602. [Discusses effects of climate change on high-mountain ecosystems.]

Download the wallpaper for your desktop! PC users: Right click on the wallpaper and select “Set as Wallpaper.” Mac users: Save the image to your desktop, then select it via the Desktop tab of your Appearance control panel.

• Species Name: Panthera tigris tigris
• Habitat: Jungle and grasslands of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, and Nepal
• Reproduction: The average litter contains two to five cubs; they are completely dependent on their mothers for the first 18 months of their lives.
• Diet: Tigers are superb hunters that mainly go after deer, monkeys, wild boar, bison, and, occasionally, humans (the tiger has probably attacked and killed more people than any other wild mammal).
• Characteristics and Behavior: The tiger is the largest member of the feline family. Its stripes provide excellent camouflage and help make it an excellent hunter. Adult males can grow to up to 10 feet in length and can weigh more than 550 pounds; females are almost as large. Just as house cats do, tigers mark their territory with scent by rubbing and scratching trees and other landmarks. Tigers and jaguars are the only cats to excel at swimming.

LEOPARD

• Species Name: Panthera pardus
• Habitat: The Middle East, most of sub-Saharan Africa, Asia Minor, India, Pakistan, China, Siberia, much of mainland Southeast Asia, and the islands of Java and Sri Lanka.
• Reproduction: There is no defined breeding season; females give birth every one to two years, rearing a litter of anywhere from one to six cubs.
• Diet: Opportunistic feeders, leopards hunt gazelles, deer, wild goats, pigs, domestic livestock, and monkeys. If necessary, they will also eat rabbits, birds, rodents, and even insects.
• Characteristics and Behavior: The leopard’s spots are called rosettes. This cat is an immensely strong animal, with a powerful neck and jaw that enables it to scale the high branches of a tree while dragging a carcass, that may weigh more than itself, in its mouth. It is remarkably adaptable, surviving handily in forests, savannas, mountain heights, and woodlands.

GOLDEN JACKAL

• Species Name: Canis aureus
• Habitat: Throughout North and East Africa, Southeast Europe, and South Asia
• Reproduction: Males and females bond monogamously, sometimes permanently, and share the duties of raising their young. Each year, they have a litter with an average of two to four pups.
• Diet: Jackals are omnivores, and eat everything from fruits and vegetables to invertebrates, reptiles, birds, small mammals, carrion, and — near human habitation — garbage.
• Characteristics and Behavior: While it can thrive in many different habitats, the golden jackal seems to prefer dry landscapes and open country, including grassland steppes. Jackals are good hunters, especially when providing for their young. They will scavenge after a larger animal has made a kill, rushing in to eat any meat remaining, then heading back tot the den to regurgitate it for their pups.

BENGAL FOX

• Species Name: Vulpes bengalensis
• Habitat: Open, unforested areas in India, Nepal, and Pakistan, particularly the Himalayan foothills
• Reproduction: Bengal foxes are believed to form monogamous relationships and have litters of three to six kits. Sometimes, members of the previous litter will stay behind to help their parents raise the next one.
• Diet: They eat almost anything, but mainly ground-nesting birds, rodents, insects, and smaller mammals, as well as some plants and fruits.
• Characteristics and Behavior: By nature, Bengal foxes are daytime creatures, but they have been so aggressively hunted — partly for their flesh, which is thought by some to hold medicinal properties, but mainly for sport — that they have become nocturnal in areas inhabited by humans.

PEACOCK

• Species Name: Pavo cristatus
• Habitat: Forested lowlands and foothills of India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The peacock is the national bird of India.
• Reproduction: The peacock’s fanning display of his famously brilliant tail feathers helps him win a mate; the brighter his colors, the more likely he is to win the peahen of his choice. Each year, a peahen lays an average of four to six eggs.
• Diet: Peacocks feed on plants and small animals, such as mice, insects, and snakes, some of which may even be poisonous.
• Characteristics and Behavior: A peacock is the male member of the peafowl species; the females are known as peahens. The peacock is the largest member of the pheasant family. The male’s tail feathers grow up to several feet long and are shed every year after mating season; the female is much more drab in appearance. They are not powerful fliers, preferring to spend most of their time on the ground.

DUNG BEETLE

• Species Name: Scarabaeidae Deltochilum gibbosum
• Habitat: Rainforests, jungles, and other forested areas throughout the world; dung beetles exist on every continent on earth except for Antarctica
• Reproduction: Female dung beetles lay their eggs directly into balls of dung, producing only one offspring at a time.
• Diet: They eat dung and lots of it, mostly excreted by plant-eating animals.
• Characteristics and Behavior: Dung beetles are very industrious insects, spending their days rolling dung into balls, then transporting the balls into a network of tunnels in which they live. In Bandhavgarh, dung beetles are an essential part of the overall forest ecology: monkeys eating in fig trees let their excretions drop to the forest floor, and the beetles cary it away. Fig seeds inside the monkey’s dung are rolled into the dung balls, which are germinated in new locations, thus helping to foster new generations of fig trees.

CHITAL

• Species Name: Cervus axis axis
• Habitat: In and around forested areas throughout India and Sri Lanka
• Reproduction: A chital gives birth to one fawn at a time, normally once a year but sometimes twice. Males stage battles over females by dueling with their antlers.
• Diet: Grass and other vegetation
• Characteristics and Behavior: Unlike other deer that lose their antlers seasonally, male chital shed and re-grow their antlers throughout the year. Sometimes, chital can be found near troops of langurs, feeding on their discarded leaves. As a result, chital and langurs help one another avoid predators: langurs look out from above, while chital use their powerful sense of smell to detect danger on the ground. Each species has learned to heed the warning call of the other.

HANUMAN LANGUR

• Species Name: Semnopithecus entellus
• Habitat: Mountain scrub and rainforests in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, China, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. In addition, it is found near and within many urban areas of India.
• Reproduction: Like most primates, hanuman langurs give birth to one baby at a time. In Bandhavgarh, most infants are born during spring’s dry season.
• Diet: Vegetarians, they eat mostly leaves, as well as fruits and flowers. They are able to digest and even thrive on seeds that humans would find toxic, such as those containing a high level of strychnine.
• Characteristics and Behavior: The hanuman langur is considered sacred in India for its resemblance to Hanuman, the Hindu god of healing and worship. Because of this, hanuman langurs dwelling in urban areas receive handouts from humans, and their raids on cultivated crops are tolerated.

OWL

• Family Name: Strigidae
• Habitat: Owls make their homes everywhere in the globe except for in Antarctica.
• Reproduction: Owls mate in the spring, with females laying an average of three or four eggs. Only the largest and the strongest of the hatchlings will survive to adulthood.
• Diet: Owls eat small mammals such as rodents, birds, amphibians, insects, and birds.
• Characteristics and Behavior: Owls are superb nocturnal hunters whose incredibly powerful senses of hearing and sight guide them to carefully hidden prey, even in the dimmest of nights. Their specially arranged feathers allow them to swoop and glide nearly soundlessly, descending upon prey without warning. Owls are famous for their vision: unlike most other birds, their eyes are large (they can account for up to five percent of an owl’s total body weight) and face forward, held in place by bony structures called sclerotic rings.

SAMBAR

• Species Name: Cervus unicolor
• Habitat: Asia and South Asia; they prefer wooded areas for protection and feeding.
• Reproduction: Mating occurs in the fall, and a single fawn is born six months later.
• Diet: Sambar eat leaves, grasses, berries, and fruits; sambar can sometimes be spotted in the water, browsing for vegetation that grows on the bottom of lakes.
• Characteristics and Behavior: Sambar, the most common deer species in the world, are the largest deer found in India, sporting antlers up to three feet long; full-grown males stand up to 5 feet tall and can weigh 700 pounds. That’s a lot of meat, and sambar are definitely the favorite meal of the tigers of Bandhavgarh — tigers usually attack the largest available prey, since they usually only eat about 60 percent of their kills. Sambar feed mainly at night, sleeping during much of the day.