Meet the tusk force

The Chinese water deer, with its distinctive tusks and delicious venison, has thrived here since escaping from deer parks in the 19th century. Paula Lester stalks one for her supper

- Paula Lester

ONE dark, dank morning in late March, I hauled myself out of bed at 4.30am and hit the road from Dorset to Bedfordshire, where I had an appointment to go out stalking for a Chinese water deer with Paul Childerley, a world-recognised expert in this unusual, non-native species that has successfully colonised parts of the country.

Although I love being out on assignment, I was nervous, as, despite having been shooting since I was 13, I'd never fired a rifle before. Well, except for when my dad-a retired gamekeeper-let me have a go at zeroing in his .22-250, but I don't think that really counts. Plus, using one with which to hunt a wild animal is entirely different and I was anxious not to let myself or the magazine down.

I need not have worried, however, because, when I arrived at Mr Childerley's smart shoot lodge at Beckerings Park-amid the thousands of acres he manages for game shooting and deer stalking here and elsewhere I knew I was in safe hands.

Indeed, we have much in common, as Mr Childerley's father was also a keeper. After training at Sparsholt College in Hampshire, he began his own keepering career by working for his father, Martin, at Campden House estate in Gloucestershire, before becoming a beatkeeper at nearby Stowell Park, then securing a headkeeper's job in Bedfordshire in 1998, where he later took on the lease and now runs the operation.

However, it wasn't until the 50 year old started work on this 1,600-acre farm that he encountered Chinese water deer. Already a skilled stalker, thanks to the hours he spent learning fieldcraft as a mustard-keen youngster 'you can't beat going out after roe bucks at dawn in the Cotswolds with my dad when the woods are alive with birdsong he found these enigmatic Asian deer required a new approach.