Tricia Moxey takes a look at Muntjac Deer and urges residents to report any local sightings to help the London Wildlife Trust map their distribution and population growth
A number of local residents have been reporting sightings of a small deer in their gardens, in Bush Wood, the City of London Cemetery and Wanstead Park. These are likely to be Muntjac Deer (Muntiacus reevesi), named in 1838 after the naturalist John Reeves (1774–1856).
John Reeves was the son of Reverend Jonathan Reeves of West Ham. John was educated at Christ’s Hospital, becoming a tea expert and respected natural historian. In 1812, he was dispatched to China by the British East India Company to search for plant and animal specimens of potential economic value. He sent a pair of live Chinese deer to the Zoological Society in London and so this species was named in his honour. Further specimens were introduced into large estates such as Woburn Park in Bedfordshire, where their ability to scale fences ensured many escaped into the wider countryside. Over the years, others were deliberately released so that Muntjac Deer are well established in southern counties, living in woods, farms and other green spaces, including urban gardens. Muntjac Deer were classified as an invasive, non-native species in 2019. They are protected in the UK under the Deer Act 1991.
Muntjac Deer are small, stocky mammals about 45–52cm tall, their long back legs causing a hunched back. Adults weigh about 14kg. The main coat colour is a coppery brown with a creamy white underbelly. The bucks have black V-shaped stripes on their heads and 20cm long, backwards-sloping antlers. The does have black diamond-shaped stripes on their heads. Both have protruding canine teeth, but those of the bucks are longer and used in territorial battles. Largely solitary animals, both bucks and does mark their territory with scent from special glands on their faces, which become inflated when in breeding condition.
Muntjac are crepuscular mammals, feeding either at dawn or dusk on trees, shrubs, shoots, herbs, berries, nuts and fungi, eating at least 85 different plants and consuming as much as 8% of their body weight in a day. They also like eating bluebells! Although mainly vegetarian, they have been observed to consume insects, snails and other ground-dwelling creatures. Their penchant for stripping bark off young trees and eating woodland plants has serious consequences as suitable nesting sites for birds are removed, leaving the ground unvegetated.
When trying to deter predators or to attract a female, the bucks will bark for some time, sounding similar to a human with a smoker’s cough!
Muntjac Deer do not have a set rutting season and mate throughout the year. The gestation period is around 210 days, with the does usually giving birth to a single fawn. A doe can become pregnant again just days after giving birth and her fawn is weaned after eight weeks. Young females reach sexual maturity within their first year.
This species was first recorded in the northern parts of Epping Forest in the mid-1960s, and in subsequent decades have dispersed into the more urbanised areas, often seen eating rose bushes in gardens. They do feed on roadside vegetation and nationally may account for 25% of deer collisions with vehicles. As they are much smaller than Fallow Deer, such collisions are less likely to immobilise a vehicle or cause injury to its occupants, and many such incidents may go unrecorded.
Muntjac Deer have no natural predators in the UK. Wild deer numbers in Britain are now the highest they have been since post-glacial times, and populations of all species are increasing both in number and geographical distribution, but exactly which species and where is not accurately known.
The London Wildlife Trust, therefore, needs your help in recording sightings of wild deer across the capital so their distribution can be mapped, along with an idea of population densities. This information will be used to develop future management strategies.
For more information and to record deer sightings, visit wnstd.com/deer
