Deer, Oh Dear

Spotted on the road outside the house by Owen and Lucy, a muntjac (Barking Deer) making its way home after a night on the town? 

Muntjac deer are a non-native species introduced into Woburn Park in Bedfordshire in 1894 although specimens were on view at London Zoo in the 1830s. Now widely found throughout the south of England and spreading northwards. A local businessman has a collection of unusual animals including flamingoes, wallabies. rheas and fallow deer though not, as far as we know, muntjac. Wallabies have been seen roaming the local byways and highways.

Muntjacs are reasonably common in the local countryside and have been reported in the city before. 

A few days earlier I spotted our first grey squirrel in the garden, after more than 18 years living here.