Muntjac Deer Distribution

[CookM]

That’s incorrect I’m afraid. There are some in East Devon but not many as far as I’m aware. Apart from the usual anecdotal reports, some more credible than others, I know for certain of a few having been shot within 15 miles of Exeter within the past 2 or 3 years. One ended it’s career in a fox snare recently. Of course these few may be the sum total of Muntjac to have visited the region, in which case you may be right and there are none now!

Glad to be corrected,l wonder if they are near the railway lines.
These are the usual vectors for them l believe.
Ideal really.
Straight lines of unrestricted nibbling.
Where l originate from ,you see more of them at night than rabbits now.
Richard Adams would struggle to write a book about munties,the area was covered in conies 25 plus years ago.

 

[CookM]

Glad to be corrected,l wonder if they are near the railway lines.
These are the usual vectors for them l believe.
Ideal really.
Straight lines of unrestricted nibbling.
Where l originate from ,you see more of them at night than rabbits now.
Richard Adams would struggle to write a book about munties,the area was covered in conies 25 plus years ago.

The first ones on my home patch moved in when l headed West.
They chewed my dad's runner bean stems off from ground level to 18" up.
Not chuffed.

 

[nun_hunter]

If they’re about you will see their slots in the mud on tracks and woodland edges. Not hard to spot at all.

There are some small slots but to be honest the fallow are plentiful so trample pretty much everything into oblivion!

I should get out again with the sole purpose of just looking for sign and if there are any about.

 

[CookM]

There are some small slots but to be honest the fallow are plentiful so trample pretty much everything into oblivion!

I should get out again with the sole purpose of just looking for sign and if there are any about.

They always remind me of piglet slots
when l go homewards shooting.

Fallow pathways look like a stampede has been through.

 

[CookM]

There are some small slots but to be honest the fallow are plentiful so trample pretty much everything into oblivion!

I should get out again with the sole purpose of just looking for sign and if there are any about.

Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted..

 

[muntjacmad]

Not after an exact location but are we talking Welshpool way, further south or more west?

yep ive a couple on ground around there, and a good head of them towards the new radnor area

 

[Bavarianbrit]

They are also inside the pfizer factory grounds sandwich

Wow, I will have to bring my thermal with me to look for them in April when I am back in the area.

 

[levigsp]

Wow, I will have to bring my thermal with me to look for them in April when I am back in the area.

Dont need thermal, i have seen them in broad daylight same as the fishery down the road.

 

[Alces Alces]

Dont need thermal, i have seen them in broad daylight same as the fishery down the road.

I always see Muntjac grazing during daylight hours, on the west side carriageway of the A34 near Newbury.

 

[mole trapper]

Seen one in North Cornwall, it had escaped from the otter sanctuary and lived in tge surrounding, however not seen it for a year or so. There are always reports of sightings but they are generally young roe. Hopefully they will turn up one day.

 

[paul k]

Interestingly, even as far back as the’60s the odd muntjac apparently turned up dead in Llanvapley (between Monmouth and Abergavenny) although at the time no other wild muntjac was within 100 miles. When I was growing up in Monmouth I spent hundreds of hours roaming in the Forest of Dean and farmland of Monmouthshire East of Abergavenny. Apart from one roe in the Highmeadow Woods all I saw was fallow which were present in nearly every large wood. Even the smaller woods used to hold the odd older solitary buck.

How things have changed! Now we have four deer species and wild boar within a few miles of the town. Muntjac are one of the four and are spreading into Wales as the latest BDS distribution maps show, particularly along the M4 corridor, and also into North Wales, spreading west from the Dane valley in Cheshire. One note of caution, the BDS maps indicate the presence of deer in a 10 kilometre grid square but does not indicate the density of populations.

 

[Sunrise Stalker]

We have them on the blackdown hills but quite small numbers (at the mo)

 

[NullMac]

The one on the map in the Scottish Borders was an april fools joke taken seriously

 

[timbrayford]

Very small numbers but nevertheless wide spread on the Isle of Wight, also turn up swimming around the Solent

 

[kenbro]

Been in Warwickshire, Coventry and NEC area since 1937. First one shot M6 junction near Coleshill at that time on a Keeper's fox drive.

Did you go on that drive, Sir?
Ken.

 

[tozzybum]

Plenty here in the midlandshire, have several on my ground.
And openly see them at the side of the road and chobbling on people's flowers in a couple of villages.

 

[3595wilk]

My part of West Oxon has them in good numbers. One lives in the small copse opposite my house and another in the thick Brambles in the allotments about 250 yards away. Others in residence within several locations nearby and I'm also aware of some in residence and using the bigger gardens in the village.

TBH quite nice to see them pottering about - but the barking at 2am is bloody annoying. Couple of very local permissions has them too alongside Roe and Fallow, but on a permission about 15 miles away nearer Cheltenham, I see nothing but Roe and Fallow. No obvious reason why not as very similar ground.

 

[stevenedwards]

Not seen any in north or west Devon yet

 

[Ratel]

Did you go on that drive, Sir?
Ken.

Now, now Ken, I know I am old but that year 1937 was slightly before I appeared in this world.
The first one I shot was in Ryton Wood SW of Coventry which was on a fox drive and we were told to shoot them, circa 1958. Funnily enough the keeper who shot that one in 37 took me over there as his mate was the keeper and they needed plenty of guns.

 

[CookM]

I always see Muntjac grazing during daylight hours, on the west side carriageway of the A34 near Newbury.

Riddled with them from Highclere on.