Near And Deer

Rod realised that if his students struggle to identify the six UK deer species, chances are some Sporting Shooter readers might too. Here, he details some defining features to help us out

- Rod Greenwood

In the summer months it is great to be invited around for drinks and a BBQ with friends and family, and as is often the case with such events, conversations turn to peoples’ employment and job roles. Being a Game and Wildlife Management lecturer generally causes some consternation, and disbelief that such courses and students exist. People seem to think that game keeping is a job of the past, which does beg the question: is it time to change the job name, leaving the job spec unchanged, and perhaps become the ‘estate conservation officer’ or ‘wildlife manager’?

Having been brought up around country sports, the next surprise for me is the lack of knowledge about the bigger species in our countryside; people can recognise a fox, or a badger, but the mustelids become a little trickier and then, of course, there are the six deer species that many believe are just one of varying size. Saying that, every year students struggle to identify our two native species and four introduced species, so here are some simple pointers…

The native species

Some of the confusion can be related to their distribution, since many of the species are now much more widespread. Let us start with our two native species, which are the small roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and, the largest of the species, the red deer (Cervus elaphus).