| Red Deer
 Red deer are the UK's largest land animals. The males have spectacular antlers, which branch out and can span up to 1m wide. They shed them every winter. The size and complexity of the antlers increase as the stag gets older. They are rarely used as weapons but more as a status symbol. Red deer have reddish-brown fur in summer, which becomes grey-brown in winter.
Red deer normally live in small single-sex herds and get together in autumn when the rutting season begins. Stags are very noisy during the rut and their bellowing can be heard from half a kilometre away. Females are solitary when giving birth, but then gather into herds with their young and non-breeding males.
Habitat:
Forests, particularly conifer plantations in Scotland, but also open hillsides and moorland especially in Scotland and the Pennines.
Status & distribution:
Red deer are common in Scotland, including some of the Scottish islands. However, there are also scattered populations in England, including the New Forest, the Pennines, the Peak District, Cumbria, parts of East Anglia and parts of the south-west. They are commonly kept in deer parks throughout the country. Small populations also occur in Wales and Ireland.
Roe Deer
 Roe deer are native to Britain and are the most widespread deer in the country. They are relatively small, only the size of a goat, hence their Latin name which means small goat! They have sandy red-brown fur in summer and rather grey-brown fur in winter. Females have a whitish patch on their rump, which is the shape of an inverted heart, whereas males have a kidney-shaped patch. They have a very small tail that looks just like a tuft of fur and have distinctive black noses and white chins. The males have short antlers, rarely longer than 25cm, with a maximum of three points each.
The antlers grow for one year and are used to fight off other males and are then shed at the beginning of winter. When cleaning their newly grown antlers, roe deer can sometimes damage young trees by vigorously rubbing them along the trunk and branches. Roe deer differ from other deer in Britain, as they tend to be solitary animals.
Habitat:
Mostly woodland with plenty of low vegetation and clearings.
Status & distribution:
Roe deer have lived in Britain since prehistoric times and are the most widespread of any deer in Britain but they are not present in Ireland. They are thought to be increasing in number.
Sika Deer
 Sika deer are native to islands of Japan and Taiwan and were first introduced into deer parks and private collections in the UK in 1860, from where they subsequently escaped or were released. The colour of their coat varies but it is generally chestnut brown and spotted in summer and almost pure grey in winter. They have a characteristic white patch of fur, outlined in black, beneath their short white tail. Stags have relatively simple antlers which generally have four points on each antler. The antlers are cast each year in April or May.
Sika deer are mostly solitary and are most active at dusk. They seem sensitive to human disturbance and only venture into more open areas at night. Sika can cause damage to commercial forests when they gouge deep, vertical grooves into the trunks of mature trees, which they do to mark their territory.
Habitat:
Sika deer prefer woodland with damp ground with dense undergrowth and heathland.
Status & distribution:
There are large populations of sika deer in Scotland and Ireland and more localised, patchy populations along the south coast of England, in Hampshire and Dorset as well as in the Lake District and Lancashire. No populations are thought to be established in Wales.
Fallow deer
 Fallow deer were introduced for hunting by the Normans nearly 1000 years ago and are now widespread throughout the UK. The males have characteristic large, flat antlers, called palmate antlers, which they shed every year between April and June. Their fur is usually reddish-brown and spotted in summer and thicker and greyer, with less distinct spots, in winter. They have a relatively long tail with a dark stripe running along it.
Fallow deer are sociable animals and usually live in herds of up to 50 or more, although the groups are generally unisex. The male and female herds come together in autumn to mate. During the rut, males scrape the ground with their antlers to mark their territory and establish their status and clash antlers with persistent rivals. Fallow deer can easily be confused with sika deer because they both have pale spots along their backs, but sika do not have palmate antlers.
Habitat:
Deciduous woodlands, also marshes and meadows. This is the deer most frequently kept in parks.
Status and distribution:
Fallow are currently the most widely distributed deer species found wild in the UK and can now be found in practically all counties of England and Wales. Herds will also be found in a number of Scottish districts and are resident on the islands of Mull, Islay and Scarba.
Muntjac Deer
 Muntjac deer are about the size of a labrador dog, and are the smallest deer in Britain. They originated in southeast China and were brought to Woburn Park, Bedfordshire, by John Russell Reeves in 1838. During the 1920s, some individuals escaped and muntjac now breed successfully in the wild. They have a deep reddish-brown glossy coat. When they are alarmed, they raise their distinctive long, dark tail to reveal the white patch underneath.
Males and females can be distinguished by the dark markings on their face. Both sexes also have very conspicuous dark pouches beneath their eyes, which are scent glands, used to communicate with each other. Males have short, straight, antlers, which point backwards and which are cast in May & June and subsequently re-grow by the autumn. Males also have a set of two large pointed teeth, which protrude from their upper lip and are used when fighting other deer. They are usually solitary, secretive animals, mainly active at night.
Habitat:
Dense woodland with low shrubby areas and occasionally large gardens or small woodland copses.
Status & distribution:
Reeves' muntjac is an introduced species which is locally distributed but increasing in number. They have been spreading rapidly throughout central and southern Britain in the last thirty years and are now found as far north as Cheshire and Derbyshire. They are not found in Ireland.
Chinese water deer
 Chinese water deer are not native to Britain; they were brought over from northeast China in the early 1900s and kept in Whipsnade Zoo and Woburn Park in Bedfordshire. Several individuals escaped and successfully populated the surrounding area. Chinese water deer are fairly small animals and are the only deer species in the UK not to have antlers. Instead, the males have large canine teeth that can grow up to 6cm long and which they use to fight off other males setting foot in their territory.
During the summer, they have light chestnut fur, which turns pale grey in winter. Chinese water deer are active both day and night and often spend much of their time grazing. They remain alert at all times and rely on their sensitive hearing, smell and sight to detect any danger. They are solitary, territorial creatures and generally only get together in winter during the rutting season.
Habitat:
Most commonly found near reed-beds, swamps, marshes, rivers and streams.
Status & distribution:
There are small Chinese water deer populations near the Norfolk Broads and elsewhere in East Anglia. It is thought that numbers in the UK may represent 10% of the world population of this species. |
