Page 5 - Masseti _ Zava_2002

A similar development of the anders has been observed in the red deer population
ofthe Mesola Wood in the Po delta (Ferrara, Italy) (Mattioli, 1990, 1991, 1993).
The Mesola deer, isolated for centuries in a restricted area of low trophic
production, has probably been at length represented by "maintenance
phenotypes", with animals of reduced stature and where the architecture of the
stag anders is very simplifìed, in the old males (about 15 years old) scarcely
exceeding the trophy of eight points (Mattioli, 1991, 1993; Lorenzini et al., 1998;
Geist, 1999; Fico et al., in press). Analogous phenotypic patterns were also
observed in the relic population of red deer which possibly still survives in the
peninsula of Sithonia ( Chalkidiki, Greece) (cf. Poirazidis, 1987).
Giglioli (1912), apparendy on the basis of an evaluation of the morphological
characteristics of the bone material collected, suggested referring the Lampedusa
red deer to the taxonomy of the " ... piccolo Cervo ( Cervus corsicanus) che travasi
tutt'ora allo stato libero in Corsica e Sardegna", now identifìed as the subspecies
of the Corsican red deer, Cervus elaphus corsicanus (Erxleben, 1777). This has
been described as the smallest subspecies of existing red deer, the males standing
from 85 to 100 cm at the withers, while the medium-sized Centrai European
form, Cervus elaphus hippelaphus Erxleben, 1777, ranges from 120 to 125 cm (cf.
Krumbiegel, 1982; Dolan, 1988; Beccu, 1989). The taxonomic attribution made
by Giglio li could lead to the assumption that, beyond the evidence resulting from
a direct analysis of the fìnds, he may also have had access to more circumstantial

Fig. 2- Srag ofCorsican red deer, Cervus e!aphus corsicanus (Erxleben, 1777) in rhe Mediterranean scrub of south-western
Sardinia (phorograph by Roberto Meloni)

203