Collared stag

VSS

Well-Known Member
Just seen a dead red stag alongside the A14, with a green collar on. A mile or two east of junction 35, on the westbound carriageway.
Any idea what that's all about?
 
Just seen a dead red stag alongside the A14, with a green collar on. A mile or two east of junction 35, on the westbound carriageway.
Any idea what that's all about?
Did the collar have an ‘eat-not’ label on it?
 
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Possibly a warning that it’s been euthanised by a vet?
That was a possibility I considered.
There's a lay-by just past where it is, so if it's still there when I pass again early tomorrow morning I might stop for a closer look, and get a photo. It'll still be dark though.
(Might get its head too, if it's any good 😂)
 
Around here heads of roadkill with antlers disappear within minutes! Although officially it belongs to the council
 
Around here heads of roadkill with antlers disappear within minutes! Although officially it belongs to the council
Well it was still there this evening, but I was heading east, so wrong carriageway. We'll see what's what when I'm heading west again in the morning.
 
Well it was still there this evening, but I was heading east, so wrong carriageway. We'll see what's what when I'm heading west again in the morning.
Did they close all the roundabouts?
That's a curiosity score of 2/10.
Your sang-froid is both impressive in general and profoundly disappointing to at least one of your readers.
 
Well I didn’t see it when I went that way at 5am this morning, so either it's been lifted in the night or, most likely, I simply missed my landmarks in the dark and shot straight past.
So, it's likely to remain a mystery unless anyone local to the area would care to nip along that section of the A14 westbound, in daylight today, and take a look? It is/was about midway way between the Rowley Mile BP services (that's the one just after Newmarket when heading west) and junction 35, clearly visible by the roadside, and there's a convenient layby just after, where it would be possible to park and walk back to the carcass.
Report back with photos, please!
 
Probably under some sort of wildlife research programme
There aren't any such projects involving putting tracking collars on deer ongoing in that area at the moment, as far as I have been able to ascertain. But as we all know, a stag can travel a fair distance at this time of year, so he may have wandered in from elsewhere.
Kicking myself now for not pulling over when I first saw it.
 
Historically, park deer might be tranquilised with Immobilon [or later opoid variants like Etorphine]. Per a thread on this forum from 2012, these should never enter the food chain.

IIRC, the mode of marking a deer that had received such an opiod was a metal tag in the ear. But these can rip out, so I wonder if the modern practice is to collar as well? Maybe one of our vets can comment? @Buchan
 
Might just have been as simple as all the vet had to hand and had to improvise an "eat not" tag - I doubt many vets routinely carry them. I had a mate euthanised one around here and all he had was a high viz vest so he tied that around it's neck and scrawled "eat not" all over it as an interim measure until he could pop back and sort the job properly.

There's probably a thread running somewhere on "why do deer wear high viz vests"...
 
Well I didn’t see it when I went that way at 5am this morning, so either it's been lifted in the night or, most likely, I simply missed my landmarks in the dark and shot straight past.
So, it's likely to remain a mystery unless anyone local to the area would care to nip along that section of the A14 westbound, in daylight today, and take a look? It is/was about midway way between the Rowley Mile BP services (that's the one just after Newmarket when heading west) and junction 35, clearly visible by the roadside, and there's a convenient layby just after, where it would be possible to park and walk back to the carcass.
Report back with photos, please!
You've got the A11 slip between the BP and J35, before or after?
 
Historically, park deer might be tranquilised with Immobilon [or later opoid variants like Etorphine]. Per a thread on this forum from 2012, these should never enter the food chain.

IIRC, the mode of marking a deer that had received such an opiod was a metal tag in the ear. But these can rip out, so I wonder if the modern practice is to collar as well? Maybe one of our vets can comment? @Buchan
Still the tag as far as I am aware. I’ve used spray marks in the past when I had no tags. Or it could have been so the council could see it
 
Still the tag as far as I am aware. I’ve used spray marks in the past when I had no tags. Or it could have been so the council could see it
It definitely looked like a properly fitting plastic collar. I was going pretty steady, towing 3.75 tonnes+ behind a 1.9 litre D-Max* so I got a fairly good look at it.

(*I just thought I'd throw that in for all those who doubt the capabilities of the lawnmower-engine-powered Isuzu 😂).
 
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