标题：Observations on the historical distribution of the red deer, Cervus elaphus L., 1758, in the wood of Mesola (Ferrara), and in the Po delta (north-eastern Italy)
摘要：Summary - Several authors currently regard the red deer of the Mesola wood (Gran Bosco della Mesola o Boscone della Mesola) of the abbey of Pomposa, as the only endemic deer of the Italian peninsula. However, certain evidence on the historic distribution of the species points to a different situation. In reality, the Mesola dunes, where the deer park was established by the d’Este princes in the late Middle Ages, originated from the geological settlement of the mouth of the river Po not prior to the 13th century AD. Thus, the red deer may not have been autochthonous but introduced after this event from abroad. However, an eastwards diffusion of the species, progressively colonizing the new coastlines from the hinterland of the Ferrara plain, just a few meters westwards of the dune spits, cannot be ruled out. Few osteological remains and literary data on the diffusion of this species are available in the territory of the Po delta from prehistoric times to the Middle Ages.
