Muntjacs abound

Whilst being a non-native deer species there is something endearing about this diminutive mammal. Small as a large dog these these oriental deer are widespread in the UK and a common sight on my trail cam.

They use the hedgerow as a dispersal conduit and can occasionally be seen foraging, in fact this past few weeks has seen a fair bit of activity of this species.

This first clip shows two interesting pieces of behaviour, it starts with the male becoming aware of something and then stamping his leg. This is an aggressive posture which he follows up with a bark like call. This continued for 13 minutes, I suspect it was a rival or perhaps more likely the Fox cub, the fox would register as a predator but its size and the size of the deer would not have meant the deer was under threat. The muntjac was just asserting himself, hes big and aggressive so leave me alone.

This week I actually got some views of a muntjac fawn. I saw a picture, as seen below that looked like a scene of family bliss -

You can see two adults and a tiny fawn perhaps only a week old, in fact the male pictured is not the father. Muntjac are able to breed all year round and the male has detected that the female is no receptive once more to mating. Video reveal him pursuing the female, smelling closely for receptiveness, this attention has spooked the fawn who dashes about in panic.

We next see the fawn and mother thankfully undisturbed again this morning.