I've got a sika calf

caorach

Well-Known Member
Yes indeed, a new arrival on a little patch I know. It is probably 6 - 8 weeks old so probably born around the end of October. I know that sika keep coming into season until they get pregnant but wonder what chance this little chap has of making it through the winter or if feeding him will be too much for the mother and will have a bad outcome for both of them. Might try to see if I can provide some extra feeding but the area is a long way from home so that is not really practical.
 
Philip, as long as that calf has a mother with milk, it has a very good chance of making it to spring time. Wind / Rain is more harmful to young animals than cold.

Hope that we don't get a prolonged wet spell and hope that someone doesn't shoot the doe.
 
I will keep the fingers crossed Brian as it really is a very late one, in saying that I was out with some friends just looking at some deer a few weeks back and there was a very small calf there that appeared to be alone so maybe late ones are not so very rare.

As you say if the mother is OK then it might do OK, I'll not be shooting the mother but the poachers might be a different thing. Hope you are avoiding the poaching "boom" yourself Brian.
 
To a large extent, feed for the mother is more important than feed for the calf, certainly until the calf is 3-4 months old. It is very late, but providing we don't get an extended period of snow making feeding hard, it should get through.

Reference the poaching, it is out of hand. We lamp foxes quite a bit, and there are deer on some of the ground we shoot in Tyrone. There are noticeably fewer deer in fields near roads, and those that are are much more lamp shy than was the case 3-4 years ago.

We have good Sika ground in Tyrone, one patch particularly is well off the road down a lane through the farmers yard. It has plently of deer. We were hunting woodcock in that area last year, we must have flushed at least a dozen Sika from cover we hunt for woodcock.

The fallow in south Tyrone seem to be getting hit quite hard by the lampers also.
 
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