Knock down ginger

Forget the poor old muntjac, it is the gingery little Chinese water deer that is rapidly colonizing our countryside, reveals Graham Downing

- Graham Downing

Speaking at a symposium about the possible spread of muntjac to the north-east of England, the British Deer Society’s scientific adviser, Dr Alastair Ward, revealed that if he were to be dragged out of retirement in 20 years’ time and asked to give an update on invasive deer species, it would not be muntjac but Chinese water deer that he would be expecting to talk about.

In east Suffolk, the growth in the water deer population has been exponential. They first appeared in the river valleys of the Broads of Norfolk and Suffolk and from there they spread south along the Suffolk coast and up from the floodplains to the high ground of the East Anglian countryside. Ten years ago they were a rare sight, to be remarked upon.

The first one that turned up here was in the back of a van. A local resident drove through the farm gate and asked: “If my dog accidentally caught a muntjac, would you butcher it for me?” Suspecting that the killing had already occurred, I asked him if he had the beast in his vehicle.

He admitted sheepishly he did and when I saw it, I told him it was no muntjac, but a Chinese water deer. Within a few months, I was seeing them dead by the roadside. I frequently shoot them when stalking muntjac and see them in the morning when I’m walking the dog.

Vulnerable

We now apparently have more Chinese water deer in the UK than there are in China. There, they have declined from between 10,000 and 30,000 in 1993 to fewer than 5,000 in 2011, and are classified as ‘vulnerable’ on the IUCN red list.