Red deer in Bedfordshire?

[Outlaw]

I was hoping for some help with something that's been bothering me. 2 or 3 years ago I was out walking one Sunday lunchtime, and had a close encounter with a large deer. It came out of the bushes a few feet in front of me, and walked towards me with its head down, not even aware I was there to begin with.

I assumed this was a young red deer, because of its size and obviously red coat. But reading a book on British mammals, all the references to deer are in areas like Exmoor, Scotland and deer parks. Are there red deer roaming wild in Bedfordshire?

[The Woodman]

Have a look at this distribution map for Red Deer and compare it to where you saw the deer.

NBN Gateway: Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) grid map

[Alex90]

There are red deer in Bedforshire both wild and in Woburn Deer Park. there are quite alot of Chinese Water deer in the area surrounding Woburn too.

[Badger Watching Man]

Hi Outlaw

I live near Woburn, and while there are a good number of Red Deer in the deer park, I haven't seen any outside it yet. I bet they have escaped from there in the past, but I don't think there's very many.

We do have a fair number of wild (re-naturalised) Fallow Deer roaming the local woods, together with Muntjac and Chinese Water Deer. The CWD are a sandy colour, but Fallow and Muntjac can be reddish. What size was the deer you saw?

BWM

[Outlaw]

The deer was just off the road that leads from Sandy up to the Lodge. I've seen quite a lot of wild animals in the area, weasels, foxes, muntjacs, etc, but nothing that was quite as handsome as this one was. I would say it was about 4-5 ft high and very red in colour. There was no sign of antlers, so I assume either a juvenile or a female.

I think the only other possibility would be a fallow deer, if one could be very red with no spotting? But it may have been too large anyway.

The link that Woodman gave shows red deer as present in almost all of Bedfordshire, except Luton. If there are red deer in the area it seems strange that such a large animal would be so inconspicuous. Would they not be seen/heard during the rut?

[Badger Watching Man]

Sounds very much like a Red Deer, unless it was an unspotted Fallow. Too big for anything else.

The map does show a wide distribution, with a big white space in mid-Beds where I am. I guess that may explain why I haven't seen any! You're right though, you'd think they would be quite conspicuous, although Bedfordshire does have more rural areas than most people think so they could be hiding out somewhere.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Outlaw

The deer was just off the road that leads from Sandy up to the Lodge.

ive seen red deer on the lodge nature reserve so its not a suprise - that said its not clear whether this is a trully wild population or a feral/naturalised one made up of escapes/releases from the deer parks of the numerous country houses that used to be found in that area

[paulthomas]

Reds do turn up in the most unexpected places and their distribution is a lot wider than many people realise.