Hi 8x57 just 20 miles South of my location deer seem to breeding and spreading at a good rate, muntjac roe and the odd fallow and a herd of farmed red deer which escaped. There are also areas 20 miles North of Oswestry where there are now deer and there wasnt some 10-15 years ago, im just wondering if the lamping boys and lurcher mob are not giving them chance to settle in between.
Deer in Wales
- Thread starter paul k
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paul k
Well-Known Member
Update some 15 years on. In north Wales no dramatic changes in distribution apart from muntjac pushing in from Cheshire and may have reached Loggerheads near Mold. Roe still thin on the ground and despite walking my dogs daily in woods near Sodom but have yet to see solid evidence of deer there however the keeper on a shoot near Tremeirchion told me that he very occasionally sees a few fallow on the shoot boundaries.
A forum member sent me photo of a definite sika stag travelling in Powys.
In the south there’s a small population of reds that sometimes come across the Wye from the Forest of Dean to the Trellech area. There’s also been at least one gold medal roe from Monmouthshire..
A forum member sent me photo of a definite sika stag travelling in Powys.
In the south there’s a small population of reds that sometimes come across the Wye from the Forest of Dean to the Trellech area. There’s also been at least one gold medal roe from Monmouthshire..
Jon P
Well-Known Member
Fallow populations are quiet good in the Monmouth area at present.
paul k
Well-Known Member
When I lived in Monmouth there were just fallow (in almost every decent wood) but now there’s also roe, muntjac, boar and a few reds within a few miles of the town.
Druid
Well-Known Member
I shall let my friend who lives in Mold know about the Muntjac. He spends a lot of time walking around loggerheads area, will be interesting to see if he comes across any.
muntjacmad
Well-Known Member
Alot more deer I've seen this season while out with hound's in mid Wales roe are breeding very well with a good few muntjac being pushed about..... Fingers crossed
paul k
Well-Known Member
I’m pretty sure that lampers have been responsible for the disappearance of the roe that were starting to turn up in Denbighshire and Flintshire about 15 years ago. Reports were building in country well suited for them in the general vicinity of Mold and up towards Denbigh but then stopped.
Beating on our shoot near Chirk last year, the dogs flushed a munty, I ran passed me about 10 yards away. Few of the shoot members have reported sightings/evidence since. Cross fingers they get left alone for a while.
farrieral
Well-Known Member
I was there that day, indeed you were working the wood down towards my peg! I still remember how surprised you were!
"Al, there's a bloody munty in here!"
We've had the odd small group of fallow moving across the common that surrounds our family farm in the heart of Powys... few and far between but every few years we catch a glimpse, which our neighbours confirm.
But once word gets out the unscrupulous amongst the community soon get out chasing them, with rifle or dog! So they never get a chance to gain a foot hold
muntjacmad
Well-Known Member
put 8 roe deer from a small ish wood on staurday with hounds coming through it......also then put a rather handsome buck out of a fern banking in the afternoon.
atb
atb
Good to hear.
Let’s hope the guys with the lamps/ thermals leave them alone.
paul k
Well-Known Member
As far as I know those deer are on the Teifi Marshes and might be at least partly red x sika hybrids. However, the latest BDS distribution maps show reds present in 10 adjacent 10km squares near Cardigan.
Other large areas with reds present are 13 adjacent squares centred on the south western Brecon Beacons and down the Neath valley as far as Resolven, this population also covers the upper Taff valley, and east towards Abergavenny and has produced a silver medal. These deer are reported to originate from deer farm escapees and/or Margam park near Port Talbot.
There’s a fairly long established but still quite small and thinly spread population originating from Powys Castle escapees.
The other area that seems to have an expanding population is in Monmouthshire’s lower Wye Valley although I suspect that it is a relatively small number of deer moving around the area. A gold medal stag was shot in 2022 ( it was almost in the Top 10 biggest wild stags ever shot in the UK and CIC scored) and a 16 pointer was reported from near Llansoy around ten years ago. These deer are reported to move back and forward across the Wye to the outskirts of the Forest of Dean.
There are another dozen or so single squares in Wales with reds reported, mostly along the border, but some in the Conwy valley and out on the Lleyn peninsula. However, a note of caution, their recorded presence in a square might be a single animal or an established population, or somewhere in between.
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There are no red deer on the Llyn peninsula, despite what the BDS map says. However, about 35 years ago, a herd was installed on one of the Tudwal islands off Abersoch by the then lease holder Carla Lane. They soon ran out of grass, so a local fisherman was charged with the task of carrying silage over to them. Which was fine until the weather turned bad and the sea became too rough for the fisherman to make the crossing. Rather than starve, the deer simply swam ashore and the good folk of Abersoch awoke one morning to find their gardens full of deer. Strangely, the deer never established themselves in the area, although one stag was seen in the Llithfaen area for a few years subsequently.
The only deer on the peninsula now are my own park herd of fallow, and I think the only red deer in North Wales are a small farmed herd in Snowdonia.
Deermanagement
Well-Known Member
Sika deer in Glamorgan 
Must have got there by helicopter or it's on someone's wall and was shot elsewhere. I know a lot of guys who know their deer that cover a lot of ground south to west Wales, rough shooting all over the place and yes the fallow, the red, the likely small number of Sika at Pendine, the muntjac in odd areas I can understand, but any Roe or Sika are hard to explain and if there are any in the South West, they've had help to get there and will be very lonely. Yes it happens, I was asked only a few weeks ago if I knew someone who could get hold of some Roe or Sika 
I never thought I would see Roe in Monmouthshire in my lifetime but now they are all over the county and Muntjac??..... there was one stood in the middle of a nearside lane of a dual carriageway joining the M4 in Newport at J28 a couple of years ago. Good job I was in the outside lane as visibility from the rain was not good in the dark but it was a doe looking to cross over towards the west side of Newport. There were muntjac in Wentwood forest to the East of Newport at least 20 years ago so no surprise they've managed to get to the West side and maybe further.
Must have got there by helicopter or it's on someone's wall and was shot elsewhere. I know a lot of guys who know their deer that cover a lot of ground south to west Wales, rough shooting all over the place and yes the fallow, the red, the likely small number of Sika at Pendine, the muntjac in odd areas I can understand, but any Roe or Sika are hard to explain and if there are any in the South West, they've had help to get there and will be very lonely. Yes it happens, I was asked only a few weeks ago if I knew someone who could get hold of some Roe or Sika I never thought I would see Roe in Monmouthshire in my lifetime but now they are all over the county and Muntjac??..... there was one stood in the middle of a nearside lane of a dual carriageway joining the M4 in Newport at J28 a couple of years ago. Good job I was in the outside lane as visibility from the rain was not good in the dark but it was a doe looking to cross over towards the west side of Newport. There were muntjac in Wentwood forest to the East of Newport at least 20 years ago so no surprise they've managed to get to the West side and maybe further.
Deermanagement
Well-Known Member
It's also likely that anything unusual or out of place for an area, Red, Sika or Fallow, buck or stag wise will often be a good animal (medal), as its likely been fed well, on the best food by it's previous owner A friend bumped into a large 18 pointer or there abouts in the Llandeilo area some 20 years ago when out rough shooting, it seemed quite tame, probably looking for a handout, but by the time he got back with a rifle, it had disappeared 
A friend bumped into a large 18 pointer or there abouts in the Llandeilo area some 20 years ago when out rough shooting, it seemed quite tame, probably looking for a handout, but by the time he got back with a rifle, it had disappeared Similar threads
