We like to keep a watch on local wildlife and once again our curator found a muntjac deer sampling the tasty plants in his garden. This wasn’t long ago – just last month – but the primroses were clearly in bloom and seemed to be of no interest to the deer.
A muntjac in Market Lavington – April 2016
Compared with other deer, the muntjac is a bit lacking in elegant grace. Roe deer get away with being a garden menace because of that beauty. By and large people don’t like the muntjac. But really he is quite a handsome fellow and what a pleasure to see such animals, gently browsing the shrubs in the garden. They were, of course, introduced into this country and have escaped into the wild. They are not a native species. Their homeland is in South Asia. However they are now well established and seem to be thriving as a species.
Market Lavington Museum 
May 10, 2016 at 7:41 am |
Handsome or not, they are a major threat to British wildlife. English Nature found that their effect at Monk’s Wood (a national nature reserve) at even just one Muntjac per hectare was “severe with unacceptable levels of browsing on coppice regrowth, lack of tree regeneration, loss of shrub layer, and modification of the ground layer with loss of floristic interest…”
May 12, 2016 at 9:23 am |
We certainly see the point of your argument. The muntjac is a recent introduction and we probably would be better off without them. But are they, as individuals, any worse than roe deer? They do seem to be more prolific breeders – there seem to be a lot of them!
May 10, 2016 at 6:35 pm |
I have been reading a report by a group of experts on the reintroduction of brown bears…wolf..and the Lynx back into the uk
If I was looking out of my window I think I would prefer to see the
Muntjac looking back at me
The beaver has been reintroduced into the uk with most of the country flooded nearly every year that’s a good idea lets build dams
And hold the water back another good idea from the nature experts
Nature has the ability to adapt and recover take for example
Salisbury plain most years the plain is set on fire by artillery shell
Fire and is nothing but black ash and yet within months it’s back to
Normal and you would not think there had been a fire
Then we have the rabbit introduced into the uk an absolute pest
It’s been gassed..shot..trapped..and given a very nasty illness over
The years but without it. There would be fewer birds of prey also
Reintroduced
May 12, 2016 at 9:20 am |
Interesting thoughts, Norman. I’m never quite so sure I approve of muntjac when he is eating my garden. But he’s no worse than more native species.