Red Deer - Magnificent antlered animal, sociable herd animal, bellowing warrior: The Cervus elaphus is Germany's Animal of the Year 2026.

In the vote, which is initiated annually by the German Wildlife Foundation (DWS), the king of the open countryside prevailed against its competitors, the stoat and the golden jackal.

Majestic Wanderer: The Red Deer is Animal of the Year 2026

The red deer is the largest land mammal that regularly lives in Germany. The species name includes both male and female animals. Hinds, calves, and young deer live together in herds, and stags also form herds outside the rutting season. Approximately 220,000 red deer live in Germany, distributed across about a quarter of the country's land area.

“By naming the red deer the Animal of the Year 2026, we want to draw attention to a species that, while numerous in Germany and even causing conflicts with agriculture and forestry, simultaneously faces significant challenges,” says Dr. Andreas Kinser, Head of Nature and Species Conservation at the German Wildlife Foundation.

Red deer are animals of semi-open landscapes, meaning they feel most at home in meadows and fields with scattered groups of trees and shrubs. However, because they are increasingly harassed and hunted by humans, they are mostly retreating into the forest. There, they eat up to 20 kilograms of plants daily, thus reshaping their involuntarily colonized habitat. While this could cause conflicts with forestry, it also has positive effects: Deers create small clearings where sun-loving herbs and grasses can grow, providing ideal living conditions for butterflies, wild bees, and wood ants. The antlers of male red deer, which fall off and are regrown every year, provide mineral-rich food for squirrels and other rodents. Deers also disperse plant seeds: Young deer, in particular, undertake long migrations to colonize new habitats. In doing so, they carry seeds of a wide variety of plants for many kilometres in their fur or excrete them in their feces.

These migrations also ensure genetic exchange between different red deer populations. However, they often end today at highways, railway lines, canals – or at officially mandated boundaries of the species' distribution. In Baden-Württemberg, for example, red deer are only permitted to inhabit 4 percent of the state's land area. On the remaining 96 percent of this state, hunters are legally obligated to cull every red deer, with very few exceptions. Due to the fragmentation of red deer populations, the species is losing more and more genetic diversity. Population geneticists are already speaking of the beginning of an extinction process.

“To help the red deer, its habitats must be better connected. We can achieve this, among other things, by building more wildlife overpasses across highways and by ensuring that migrating animals are not hunted,” says Kinser. New habitats also play a crucial role: “Small populations must be allowed to establish themselves between widely separated populations, serving as stepping stones for connectivity. Only by giving the Deers more space can we succeed in preserving this fascinating species in Germany in the long term,” the conservationist explains.

The German Wildlife Foundation advocates for the red deer through political engagement and public awareness campaigns.

By choosing the red deer as “Animal of the Year,” the German Wildlife Foundation continues the long-standing work of the German Wildlife Conservation Association. Since 2017, the foundation's donors have selected an animal of the year to raise public awareness, whether due to its endangered status, the threat to its habitat, or because it is involved in human-wildlife conflict. For the first time, in addition to donors, all nature enthusiasts were able to cast their votes online for the Animal of the Year 2026.

Photos of the Animal of the Year 2026 were kindly provided by the German Wildlife Foundation (DWS)!

Jenifer Calvi, Press Officer
German Wildlife Foundation
Lucy-Borchardt-Straße 2
20457 Hamburg
Phone +49 40 970 78 69-14
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.DeutscheWildtierStiftung.de

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