Megaloceros giganteus is commonly accepted and depicted by mainstream paleontologists (notably Guthrie, Naish, Witton shown below respectively) to have a striped body as indicated by a handful of Paleolithic art depictions, but perhaps this interpretation should be challenged.

It’s notable that most depictions lack any markings, although the ones that do are consistent enough to reasonably suggest it was real. The markless individuals perhaps show a Spring-Summer seasonal morph; markings are less prominent among reindeer and wild horse at that time.

Comparisons to reindeer cave art can be made for the marked individuals, where lines (“stripes”) are used to denote a rapid transition of color from light to dark, not actual striping due to the monochrome color scheme used. This questions a striped interpretation heavily.

Guthrie also depicted them with a light head and neck and dark body, which has subsequently been reused as standard but isn’t rooted in any sort of evidence. Instead, the art may suggest an alternating pattern from the few marked individuals available, similar to reindeer again.

In conclusion, I feel the standard Megaloceros depiction created by Guthrie needs to be treated far less concretely at best, as it seems to be a generally unreasonable interpretation at times. Similarly, the non-marked depictions should be weighed more in depicting the species.