The Red Deer of Bushy Park

How this photograph was taken.

People who have not had the opportunity to observe deer at close range assume that they eat only grass.  This is not true - like goats - deer will eat almost any vegetation they can get at.  Trees are another good source of food for them.  If you find yourself in a park where all the trees have flat bottoms then it is almost certainly a deer park.  The many Horse Chestnuts planted in avenues around Bushy Park provide yet another important food for the deer when they fruit in late autumn.  The deer don't even have to work to get at these nuts.  On wet nights you can hear the pods explode with distinct pops followed by rattles and thumps as the heavy nuts fall through the boughs to finish up on the ground around the tree. 

For most of the year the deer are silent, timid animals with a talent for disappearing into the background.  However, it is best to treat them with caution and avoid approaching them.  It is not unusual to hear of them killing a dog, particularly in June and July when there are young fawns about.  The dominant stags become very possessive about their harems during the rut (the mating season - see below) so this is another time to take care when close to red deer.

Their favourite summer haunts are patches of ferns that are scattered over the park.  You can be strolling along when, suddenly, you spot large ears that follow you like you radar dishes.  Then you start to pick out the heads and antlers of other animals in the surrounding undergrowth.  It is at this point that you realize you are surrounded by deer!  This is most likely to happen on a summer afternoon, when the air is still, as Red Deer have a strong, musky smell which normally alerts you to their presence. 

At most times the deer move around in small, mixed herds of 15 to 20 animals.  In late summer, as the rut approaches, the sexes separate - although the size of the groups seems to remain about the same.  During the rut the dominant stags become very noisy animals - this is where the term rut* comes from - that stand guard over their harems of does.  In this area the noises start in late September or early October.  For a few weeks the peace of the night is broken by strange moans and groans that carry over surprising distances.  I live approximately 200m from the nearest park wall and, before we had double glazing installed, I would frequently hear the stags from inside my home during the period of the rut. 

The deer are wild - they are not domesticated or farmed - but they are accustomed to having people around.  It would be difficult for them not to be as they live in Bushy Park.  It is at the NW tip of the crescent of Royal Parks that is clearly visible in the South Western corner of satellite photographs of Greater London.  Bushy Park is actually the northern extension of Home Park which fills the loop in the Thames between the bridges at Hampton Court Palace and Kingston-upon-Thames.  It is roughly rectangular and is surrounded by the high walls needed to keep the deer in. 

During World War II the land in the North Eastern corner of the park was the site of SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force).  The area behind the fence that is visible in the background of the photograph continued in military use as the Admiralty Research Laboratories until about five years ago.  Around a kilometre away you will find the U.K.'s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) which houses the atomic clocks that will determine the exact moment when we enter the third millennium on the Prime Meridian at Greenwich. 

Deer are not the only wildlife to live in the park.  Apart from the red deer you can also see rabbits and a range of birds that includes herons, woodpeckers, kestrels and jays.  The jays are my personal favourites.  They are stunningly coloured birds that avoid people so getting close to them is always a particular thrill.  Unfortunately their voice does not match their plumage.  A quiet exchange between jays will echo around the trees and make you wonder where the fight is! 

*The Oxford Concise Dictionary describes rut as being derived from Middle English or Old French words which in turn come from the Latin noun rugitus (roar). 
 
 
 

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Document:      reddeer.htm
Version:         2.00
Date:              1999/07/27
Author:           R.F. Harvey