The Increasing Fallow Deer Population in the UK
This Attractive Wild Deer Species is Thriving Throughout Britain
Nov 12, 2009
The two native deer species of Britain are the red deer and the roe deer, but fallow deer, having died out in the last ice age were re-introduced successively by the Romans and the Normans. Many are kept in ornamental and farmed deer herds on great estates and National Trust properties where visitors throng to watch the deer, but others find abundant deer habitat in woods and open farmland. With no natural predators to control their numbers, the fallow deer population of the UK has increased steadily between censuses, with an estimated total of over 100,000 fallow deer in the year 2000.
History of Fallow Deer in the UK
Having become extinct in the last ice age, fallow deer may first have been brought back by the Romans, but there’s no evidence of them in Saxon England. After 1066, however, they were widely reintroduced by the Normans when William and his barons created great deer parks in their newly acquired lands, both for sport and to stock the Royal table with venison. Fallow deer escaping from the Royal forests and from noblemen’s parks soon became established in many parts of the country. Many more escaped to increase wild deer numbers in the Civil War when a large number of great estates were broken up and their herds dispersed.
For centuries strict laws banned all but the nobility from hunting deer, especially the fallow deer, which was reserved to the King by Royal Prerogative. The White Hart, a white fallow deer, became the personal emblem of King Richard II.
Then, in the 17th century, more widespread deer hunting led to a sharp decline in the deer population, particularly of roe deer which were driven almost to extinction. In the 18th century, however, with the fashion for grandiose landscape gardening at its height, the owners of many great houses again stocked their newly created parklands with fallow deer herds, some of which still survive.
With wolves, bears and all their other natural predators bar man extinct, deer numbers have grown steadily over the past two centuries.
Present Day Deer Population and Distribution in Britain
The abundant deer habitat in the UK and the absence of predators has led to a rapid increase in fallow deer numbers in recent years, predominantly in England and Wales. They are also extending into new territory. Other deer species have also increased significantly. This has generated an increasing number of deer related road accidents (estimated at 74000 in 2007 according to the British Deer Society) and significant costs in damage to woodland and farm crops. Overpopulation can also cause suffering to the deer themselves by reducing the availability of food.
Consequently, there is general but by no means universal acceptance of the need to manage the deer population by culling, but both the size and method of culling are controversial, and deer hunting in particular arouses fierce passions.
The Contribution of Fallow Deer to the UK Countryside
Deer also, however, make positive contributions to the rural economy, both by providing a source of tasty and healthy meet, and as an attraction to be enjoyed by the many visitors who enjoy watching deer herds in parks, forests and National Trust properties.
It is this, the sheer enjoyment of seeing one of Britain's largest and most beautiful mammals in its natural habitat, and the opportunity to learn more about the fallow deer and its fascinating life cycle, which people prize most highly. The spectacle of fallow deer grazing beneath ancient oak trees in rolling green parkland, or a fleeting glimpse of shy wild deer in the edge of a wood, must be among the most breathtaking sights in the British landscape.
Sources:
RSPCA
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