Deer in Northumberland....appart from Roe??

[Dogs]

Are there any other species of deer in Northumberland appart from the common Roe? As Ive never seen or heard of any, and I think its a shame there arnt any Red's about, as we have some cracking habitat for them, and in my view they belong here!

Cheers, Dogs.

[deer boy]

I've just done a quick google search & it looks like there maybe Fallow & Muntjac deer in the area

[Hedge Witch]

Some distribution maps here:

http://www.jncc.gov.uk/pdf/pub05_ukm...es02_final.pdf

They may be a little old for your purposes, but they are encouraging

[The Woodman]

An interesting question and I've just had a dip into the National Biological Networks Gateway site and found a record of Fallow Deer.

Site name Gridref Date Recorded Date Accuracy Sensitive Recorder Determiner VICECOUNTY STATUS SOURCE RECORDTYPE
No site name available NU02 Between 1736 and 1978 Year Range N Lowe, V.P.W and Forestry Commission Unknown North Northumberland (Cheviot) Unknown Field 7

The details are there -however old. V.P.W.Lowe lives three miles from me- what a coincidence. I haven't looked at all the 10 km squares.

[Dogs]

Firstly thanks for the replies! And those distribution maps are great reference.
Ive been doing a lot of research into this, and it seems there are a few Red Deer on the Simonside hills in the Cheviots. There are also isolated reports of fallow and Munties (no mention of sika), but I dont think any of the above have a good breeding population. Muntjac are spreading northwards up the east coast towards Northumberland, odd single sightings have been reported, so fingers crossed, there may be a breeding population in a few years time!

Any further opinions or evidence warmly welcomed.

[victoriasmith]

On the 3rd of april 2010, at approximatley 17.00 hours, me and my dad saw a red deer 4 miles south of haltwhistle, northumberland. It was 40metres from us and the sighting lasted over 2 minutes. It was by itself in a mixed wooded field area. It was a dark burgendy colour, 4ft high with short antlers and had the distinct white patch on its rear. We were surprised because noone to the best of our knowledge has seen a red deer in this area before. But we are absolutly positive it was a red deer. Within half a mile there was a group of roe deer which crossed our path while we were on a long country walk. This sighting took place at about 17.45 hours in a prodominantly wooded area. Until we got very close, the four roe deer did not seem at all concerned about our presence. When they became aware of us they crossed the path and dissapeared into the woods. This sighting lasted well over 2 minutes. Any comments on our sighting would be greatly appreciated.

[The Woodman]

Hi victoriasmith and welcome to WAB.

An interesting observation and I would suggest you let the Northumberland county mammal recorder know.

Stuart Will - nhsn@ncl.ac.uk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

From a quick look at the distribution of Red Deer on NBN Gateway (and my geographical knowledge!), there appears to be a dearth of records in the Haltwhistle area.

NBN Gateway: Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) grid map

Red Deer are great travellers so it wouldn't surprise me.

[RKB]

Originally Posted by Dogs

Muntjac are spreading northwards up the east coast towards Northumberland, odd single sightings have been reported, so fingers crossed, there may be a breeding population in a few years time!
.

Fingers crossed? You must be bonkers! We're shooting them as fast we can in the south, as they are immensely damaging to woodlands. They live at much higher densities than other deer and breed all year round, and completely strip out the ground flora and understorey. In some woods, they eat about 90% of the bluebells and have totally eradicated wood anemone and bramble. With all the knock-on consequences of that (no bramble for ground-nesting birds, no woodland regeneration, coppicing becomes impossible, no food for nectaring insects) they are an absolute nightmare that cost a fortune to control or protect against. They're not even pretty, but they are very tasty. But if you like woodlands with 8 ft fences around them, which is what we have to do round here, then keep those fingers crossed!

The distribution in the NE is odd, as it's a bit of a hotspot. They haven't even reached the Humber up the east coast yet, but have somehow leap-frogged to Northumbs, so some idiot has clearly been releasing them.

[Dogs]

Originally Posted by victoriasmith

On the 3rd of april 2010, at approximatley 17.00 hours, me and my dad saw a red deer 4 miles south of haltwhistle, northumberland. It was 40metres from us and the sighting lasted over 2 minutes. It was by itself in a mixed wooded field area. It was a dark burgendy colour, 4ft high with short antlers and had the distinct white patch on its rear. We were surprised because noone to the best of our knowledge has seen a red deer in this area before. But we are absolutly positive it was a red deer. Within half a mile there was a group of roe deer which crossed our path while we were on a long country walk. This sighting took place at about 17.45 hours in a prodominantly wooded area. Until we got very close, the four roe deer did not seem at all concerned about our presence. When they became aware of us they crossed the path and dissapeared into the woods. This sighting lasted well over 2 minutes. Any comments on our sighting would be greatly appreciated.

Lucky you! Ive lived in the area all my life and been involved in countryside management, and have never seen (or heard of) reds in the area... lets hope there are more than one, and they are given a fair chance to breed. Its been quite some time since reds were common in Northumberland, and it would be a great boost to our counties fauna if they became established.
Many thanks for reporting the sighting.

All the best

Dogs

[Dogs]

Originally Posted by RKB

Fingers crossed? You must be bonkers! We're shooting them as fast we can in the south, as they are immensely damaging to woodlands. They live at much higher densities than other deer and breed all year round, and completely strip out the ground flora and understorey. In some woods, they eat about 90% of the bluebells and have totally eradicated wood anemone and bramble. With all the knock-on consequences of that (no bramble for ground-nesting birds, no woodland regeneration, coppicing becomes impossible, no food for nectaring insects) they are an absolute nightmare that cost a fortune to control or protect against. They're not even pretty, but they are very tasty. But if you like woodlands with 8 ft fences around them, which is what we have to do round here, then keep those fingers crossed!

The distribution in the NE is odd, as it's a bit of a hotspot. They haven't even reached the Humber up the east coast yet, but have somehow leap-frogged to Northumbs, so some idiot has clearly been releasing them.

Thanks for the rant, but im well aware of the damage these little critters can cause to our woodlands and native flora, ive been involved in deer management all my life.
Got to face the FACT that they are spreading at an alarming rate ever northwards, and sooner or later they will be common throughout our island.
I like to look on the bright side of things, and when I see my first Northumberland munty, il be smiling for sure.

all the best