They have a golden brown coat liberally smattered with white spots, with an obvious white gorget (throat) and black nose. The antlers are uncomplicated, can be impressive and usually consist of a brow tine, a long sweeping beam and a single rear top tine.

Axis can be prone to stress when handling is attempted. They are prone to panic and flee at the slightest provocation. This is further complicated by the unpredictable antler and calving cycles, meaning that no particular time of year can guarantee that there are no stags in hard antler and no young calves at foot. If handling a herd of Axis is to be attempted, the stags should be removed beforehand, either through darting or culling. Great care should be taken when handling the remaining hinds and young.

Hand-rearing of Axis deer has been accomplished successfully, although the calves tend to remain more aloof and wary of their human surrogate than other deer species. Careful planning should be taken when re-releasing these young deer back into the park herd because they are prone to extreme panic when spooked or in unfamiliar territory. Stimulations as innocuous as the unexpected alarm call of a bird can cause Axis to charge off, seemingly blindly, sometimes running into barriers such as fences or mesh gates with fatal consequences. A staged reintroduction from a smaller release pen surrounded by an opaque barrier is recommended.

Barasingha can be difficult to sedate and can be prone to stress during and following capture operations. They are, therefore, challenging to handle and can pose a significant risk of injury to those attempting to handle them.

Fallow deer come in four colour variants.

• Common: Common fallow deer are a dull grey-brown colour during the winter, while their summer coat is a rich brown colour covered in white spots along the back and flanks. A continuous white line runs the length of the flanks, and the underside of the deer is white. A black line runs along the spine, and the rump of a common fallow deer is white with a characteristic black upside-down horseshoe shape running across the top of the rump.
  
• Menil: Menil fallow deer have similar summer coat markings to those of the common colour variant; however, they are much lighter. The base coat colour is a light fawn, and the black markings along the back and tail are a light brown colour. They also possess white spots along the back and flanks.
  
• Leucistic (White or Cremello): True albinism is rare in fallow deer, while white colour variants are quite common and were probably selectively bred for within parks historically. White fallow are often desirable for display herds and can also be of use when trying to locate groups of fallow within landscapes because they are easier for the human eye to pick out than common or menil animals. Fawns start life with a ginger-coloured coat that lightens with age.
  
• Melanistic (Black): Melanistic fallow have a much darker coat than the other colour variants; even so, they are not truly jet black. They have black backs and tails with slightly lighter legs and undercarriages; they still have spots (in the same manner as common and menil fallow), which are very slightly lighter than the rest of the coat, but are often indistinguishable at range. The winter coat is duller and browner and still much darker than that of the other colour variants.

Herds, both wild and emparked, may be of a single colour morph or may contain a combination of different colours. Fallow can be extremely well camouflaged within their habitat, and it is not uncommon for deer managers to have difficulty locating herds even within relatively small, enclosed areas.

A major distinguishing feature of fallow deer from most other species is the structure of their antlers (see Figure 1.7). Fallow deer have ‘palmate’ antlers, where the upper part of the antler is broad and flattened like the palm of a hand. Fallow have a prominent brow tine jutting forwards just above the coronet; they often lack a bez tine and have a small trez tine; the antler then flares out into the broad palm, which can have many smaller points or ‘spellers’ coming off the rear of the antler. The antlers of fallow deer, as with all deer, generally become larger and more complex with age until the animal is in its prime. Yearling fallow bucks or ‘prickets’ will often have simple spikes of antler with little to no branching or palmation.

Fallow deer form herds ranging from a dozen or so animals to roving herds hundreds strong. They will both graze and browse. Woodlands frequented by fallow can be markedly reduced in the understory and have a sharp ruler-straight browse line. Fallow deer will stand on their hind limbs to reach food, so the browse line can be up to 1.7 m. Large herds of fallow can present problems to landowners and cause substantial amounts of damage to arable crops by consuming, trampling or lying on them. Out of the breeding season, the different sexes will often form smaller herds, with does and young running together as a group while the bucks form a ‘bachelor’ herd. During the rut, fallow bucks will establish rutting stands or ‘leks’, which they will defend aggressively and from which they will display to assert dominance over other males and to attract does for mating. The belching bellow of a fallow buck is an integral part of the autumnal soundscape in many places.

Fallow deer can be wary animals that stress and panic easily, making them difficult to handle. When trying to approach groups of fallow for live capture, there will often be a dominant animal, usually a lead doe, to which the rest of the group will look and follow. Identifying this animal early on can be advantageous. Removal of this animal can sometimes help capture operations as it can reduce the chance of the herd being led away from the catch area by the doe, but equally can lead to confusion and more erratic behaviour in a herd temporarily bereft of leadership.

The approach to groups of fallow deer should take into consideration the usual environment in which the particular animals exist. In wild or semi-wild populations, successful attempts to dart an animal will require careful and skilled stalking. However, slow stalking of park fallow, which are used by members of the public walking by, will instantly arouse suspicion. In such herds, boldly striding along an established footpath may be a much more effective way of approaching a group.

Fallow can be readily habituated to food, and this is often used within parks to allow health checks and close observations to be carried out. Feeding can also be used to facilitate catching or easier darting of fallow deer. Despite their size, fallow deer are immensely powerful and athletic. The hooves of fallow deer are surprisingly sharp and when cornered and not properly handled can become dangerous weapons. Handling of fallow bucks in hard antler should be avoided. When pressurised, bucks will attack humans or other deer, potentially fatally. Prickets can be aggressive to other deer, including other deer species.

When run into an appropriately designed catching and handling system with experienced handlers, fallow does and fawns settle surprisingly well and can be handled with relative ease and minimal stress. This requires experience, expertise and preparation in order to be achieved safely and humanely. All catching activities of parks or wild deer in the United Kingdom require appropriate licensing from the relevant government body.

Orphaned fallow fawns will readily adapt to hand-rearing, although the same rules that apply to the hand-rearing of buck fawns also apply to red stag calves. It should not be undertaken because of the danger a hand-reared buck can pose to human safety after puberty.