Broads bonanza for peculiar little deer

Classed as vulnerable in its native Yangtze delta range, Chinese water deer are far from vulnerable in Britain, says Sam Carlisle

- Sam Carlisle

'Snap’ went the ligger. Nat, my friend and erstwhile stalking guide, plunged into the dyke below, its murky waters rising close to his waist.

‘Ligger’ is a Norfolk term for those thin planks that act as precarious footbridges across ditches. They always look old and slippery. I never trust them. Having crossed a number already on the stalk, I was particularly unconvinced by this one. Visibly crumbling as the rot encroached along the edges and covered with ancient moss, it obviously hadn’t been used in some time.

Thankfully, Nat had volunteered to lead the way. My wife, Georgia, and I were visiting Nat and his wife, Connie, at the Raveningham estate. Deep in the Norfolk Broads, areound it there were plenty of dykes with dodgy liggers, reed beds and marshes, making it the perfect habitat for Britain’s most peculiar cervid, the Chinese water deer.

Chinese water deer hail from the Yangtze delta. In their native range, industrialisation has eroded habitat and the International Union for Conservation of Nature classes the species as vulnerable.

They first came to England as part of an exhibition at London Zoo in the 1870s, but their lucky break came when Herbrand Russell, the 11th Duke of Bedford, purchased some from the zoo for his deer park at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire. The Duke was intentionally laissez-faire about his fence maintenance at Woburn and would give exotic animals as gifts.