Welcome to Cervid-Online! A passion for deer is a profoundly grounding and inspiring journey, that for many is lifelong. I don’t often meet people with ‘just’ a casual interest in deer. It’s all or nothing. Deer are an endless source of fascination and intrigue; for me they are a riddle that begs to be solved. We are inherently curious and seek to understand them, making observations and developing theories relating to their behaviour and how they interact with their environments. Many of us are in essence ‘hobbyist-ecologists’; the questions we all ask being primarily scientific in nature.
Throughout the course of my own deer obsession, I have asked an absurd amount of questions in an attempt to better understand them. Having a background in science through my work and education, I seek answers to these questions by consulting scientific literature. The volume of published information is incredible, meaning it is probable most questions have an answer - which needs only to be found. It is an approach that works, but is not by any means an easy path to take.
I have long felt there is a communication gap between the scientific community, who undertake the research and publish their findings, and the rest of the community. Scientific literature is often difficult to find and obtain, or too expensive to ever be coffee-table reading. They are also notoriously difficult to read and interpret, written for a very specific audience of scientists with similar research interests. This leaves us with a limited number of published books, internet forums and clubs to develop our understanding of deer. Unfortunately, much of the information available via these avenues, particularly social media, is entirely false or based on limited evidence. Accessing credible information relating to deer is often difficult.
Cervid-Online is produced to bridge the information gap between science and the deer community. Articles are published on a range of subjects relating to cervidae, fully referenced with primarily scientific papers. The content is freely available to read and share, with the aim of reaching as many deer enthusiasts as possible.
The future of Cervid-Online is largely dependent on support from the deer community. The site is currently being run at a financial loss and takes an enormous quantity of unpaid time to develop. Please consider making a donation to help secure the future of this project long-term. All money raised will be used to fund our growing library of journal articles and books which are needed to make these articles possible. If you have resources you would like to donate to our library, please make contact – any help is profoundly appreciated.
Finally, we welcome your feedback! Please do not be hesitant in making contact and letting us know your thoughts, ideas and question. This is what Cervid-Online was created for after all.
Thankyou kindly for your support!
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