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.

Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) also known as Elk in North America

• Type: Mammal
• Family: Cervidae
• Habitat: Temperate forests, open woodlands, and mountainous areas
• Location: Broad distribution; across Europe, Asia, and into North America
• Diet: Varies by season and what is available; mainly grasses, plants, twigs, and mosses
• Average lifespan in the wild: 8 or 9 years
• Size: 5.25-8.86 ft (1.60-2.70 m)
• Weight: 376-643 lbs (171-292 kg) for females; 392-1095 lbs (178-497 kg) for males

Red deer are social animals that spend most of their lives in male or female herds. The two sexes come together only during the annual mating season. Each spring, young are born. After several weeks of hiding their newborns in the brush, the mothers, called hinds, bring their young back into the female herd. The female herd follows the dominant female, who leads them to seasonal grazing grounds. During the summer, a herd may be composed of as many as 400 individuals.

The antlers of an adult male red deer can grow up to four and a half feet. During the autumn rut, males compete for mating privileges by bashing antlers with the dominant male. In order for a non-dominant male to mate, he must fight, although no challenger will fight unless he thinks he can win. The prize is access to breeding females, and the right of the winner to pass on his genes. In January, after the breeding season has ended, males lose their antlers. They grow back quickly at a rate of nearly one inch per day.

During the harsh winter, the red deer’s metabolism slows in an effort to conserve energy. Red deer have evolved in such a way that the animal can actually significantly slow its heart rate and lower its body temperature, which decreases the amount of energy it expends by nearly 17 percent and helps it to survive in severely cold climates.

Red deer have long been hunted by humans. In fact, red deer meat was found in the belly of a mummified hunter who died in the Alps over 5,000 years ago. Even today, these amazing animals continue to be a popular target for game hunters.

Deforestation and urban expansion pose major threats to red deer, as their breeding and feeding grounds are rapidly being cut off. Man-made roads pose another deadly hazard, though animal friendly “green bridges” are currently being built all over Europe to allow the red deer and other species to travel safely across roads and highways.

Did you know: Ovulating females prefer the vocal calls of larger males, and can detect body size based on the pitch and frequency of a call.

Related Episode:

• Prince of the Alps

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Uncertain Future for the Alpine Red Deer

However inhospitable the weather may turn in the highest regions of the Austrian Alps, evolution has equipped the diverse species that claim these heights as their home with the ability to survive. The variations in weather are often sudden and intense, and the adaptations and perseverance required of these alpine creatures in order to ensure species survival are remarkable.

Throughout the year, Austria’s red deer roam the alpine environment in search of food. In summer, the red deer migrate to the highest altitudes and can stay there all season long. But, over the course of the season, the force of the elements can vary widely. Frequent lightning strikes can decimate entire herds that frequent these regions. If the mountain grasslands go dry or are over-grazed by local herds, the red deer will move down the mountainside to lower pastures where there may be more vegetation.

Come autumn, the red deer descend to lower elevations in the forested river valleys and graze on vegetation there before the long, grueling winter. When winter arrives, the landscape is transformed. Snow accumulation can exceed a person’s height in just a few days. Red deer forage for the sparse remaining vegetation on the cliffs, where winds have cleared the snow and left patches of plant life. The strongest deer are able to adapt and reduce their need to eat in winter. As they take in fewer calories, their heart rate, body temperature and metabolism are drastically lowered, and they slow down to reduce their energy expenditure.

In winter, snow accumulation can exceed a person’s height in just a few days.

Humans are changing everything and disrupting the process of natural selection. Many deer in the Alps can no longer survive the seasons on their own because they have come to depend on handouts from local landowners, farmers and even hunters who put out food to attract the deer. Austria’s red deer management program, too, in an effort to keep deer populations large enough to guarantee hunting success, have set up feeding stations in fenced enclosures near roads, where many deer spend more than half the year.

Each year it gets more difficult for the red deer to fend for themselves as humans encroach on their terrain. Busy roads, hunting stations, eco-unfriendly ski resorts, and the effects of global warming are threatening the long-term stability of red deer populations.

Along with the fenced enclosures for feeding, roads and highways are disrupting the deer’s migration route. More than 10 million trucks and about 50 million cars cross the Alps each year. Seventy-seven million tons of cargo move through the mountains in an average year, including furniture, chemicals, livestock, mineral water and automobiles. By 2020, some predict, Trans-Alpine commercial transport will double. The mountains concentrate the fumes from all these vehicles, and the greenhouse gas emissions are trapped in narrow valleys. The rapid increase in these carbon-emitting fossil fuels is expected to have a profound effect on the climate of the Alps. For the red deer, the problem is that they have adapted to the cold, barren conditions of Austria’s Alpine region. Biologists fear that if the temperature keeps rising, many alpine animals will face quick declines or extinction. According to the Austrian Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, the Alps are warmer today than anytime in the past 1,300 years. Some creatures have adapted to the constantly changing and gradually more restrictive environment — shifting breeding and migration dates, according to Science Magazine. But the red deer have fewer places to migrate, since they are surrounded by roads and ski resorts.

In 2007, Austria held an international conference on how to cope with the warm winters and lack of snowfall caused by global warming. However, the focus of the conference was not the animals and their habitat, but rather the impact of climate change on tourism and ski resorts. Austria’s Federal Forest Administration is working with land owners, communities and traffic authorities to protect wildlife corridors by building green bridges. And, ski resorts in the Alps are answering the demand for sustainable tourism by offering incentives for visitors who use public transportation and hybrid cars. But even with these green initiatives, it’s uncertain what lies ahead for these mountain dwellers when human encroachment and global warming threaten their natural resources and habitat.