ROEBUCK

A small deer resembling a gazelle. The roebuck stands over two feet (.6 meter) high at the shoulder and measures about four feet (1.2 meters) in length. Only the males have antlers and these are shed each year. In this the roebuck differs from the gazelle with its permanent horns, usually present in both sexes. The roebuck’s summer coat is reddish brown, and this may have given the creature its Hebrew name yahh·murʹ, considered to be derived from a root meaning “redness.” This animal is not gregarious. Generally only small groups of three or four, the buck, the doe and a fawn or two, may be seen feeding together. The roebuck has one mate for life.

Being a chewer of the cud and a splitter of the hoof, the roebuck was acceptable for food according to the terms of the Mosaic law. (Deut. 14:5, 6) The flesh of this creature was one of the regularly provided meats for King Solomon’s table.—1 Ki. 4:22, 23.