Sad Info

One of the Red Deer escaped the other day.  Apparently it takes a considerable time to call out qualified people to tranquilise any escaped animal: Red Deer are pretty large (our largest UK animal) and are also capable of causing considerable harm to humans particularly when agitated. The Deer had ventured onto a busy main road and there could have been serious consequences.

The decision was apparently made to kill the deer before it caused a serious injury.

No-one likes the Deer more, and it is such a sad thing to happen, but the Deer are culled when numbers are out of balance and Wollaton Park is a deer farm, so tough decisions are made

Lots of us are pretty upset that circumstances could not have been different and people have taken to social media to comment which is cool. What folks perhaps dont know is the Deer can jump high fences without running up to them and can rear up on their hind legs making them tower over any human. The antlers are sharp and can puncture skin, they can run very fast and they just are really dangerous in a built up environment. 

In woodlands, forests and particularly in Scotland where there is so much land to roam they stay away from humans mostly – and its just unlikely you would come within 50 yards of one. Whether the Wollaton Park Deer are more tolerant of humans as they live out their lives in a 500 acre closed space is debatable. The bottom line is they are dangerous and should not really be approached.

Hopefully no-one helped this one ‘escape’  out into the suburbs, it’s probably the first time such an awful decision has been taken outside the park since the herd arrived decades ago.

Many years ago I remember a Fallow Deer escaped and was running all over Wollaton causing one or two close calls with traffic on Wollaton Road, some of the local lads, my brother included, ran after it, and eventually it went onto the land around Martins Pond. Apparently it was possible to capture it there and take it back to the park as Martins Pond is mostly enclosed. Also once or twice people have been attacked in the park over the years  (usually when dogs are involved), one neighbour of mine as a child was trapped by a Red Deer against a tree and had to have a shoulder injury treated in hospital. We won’t go into the information about dogs on the loose worrying the deer and having to be shot here, but its happened once or twice.

Sometimes according to the people who know about the red deer in Scoylanf, on rare occassions a wild herd can surround you and apparently its best to make yourself really small or lie on the ground and hope they go past.  Its a fact our Park deer at the end of the winter follow anything that is wearing the same colour as the tractor that drops the turnips for them while its icy and snowy. I’ve tested that theory once or twice (even when the new tractor was a colour change …someone will comment they cant see colours i expect).  When Spring arrives the Deer love the warmer sunshiny days and forget about being hungry and chasing anything that might possibly distribute turnips).

Such a sad thing to happen but thankfully there was no major traffic accident and no-one was gored or injured. This particular Deer has had a good life in a beautiful place, probably for 15 or more years. Its not nice to think any of them are culled but it happens – do they know this and are they afraid? no-one knows. The book Annimal Farm is just fiction we hope.  Its just sad the one deer that has made a bid for freedom only found suburbia and traffic and not some idyllic scottish glen.

Just wish we knew which one (some you can recognise over a year when their antlers have grown, but they change year to year) and hopefully its not any single deer that lost a rutting battle.

The worst scenario would be no deer in the park at all …

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These comments are not from any of the Council or Wollaton Park team.

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Thanks to the team for keeping us safe, swerving to avoid a loose deer on the A52 or running into one could be really hectic:  Still too sad. …

Link here …hope ok to add this, if not can take it back off the blogpost.

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https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/local-news/escaped-stag-wollaton-park-could-2137714

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After thought ..

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… Just a long as it has nothing to do with Mr M Alm… Splendour headliner 2018 appearing on ‘Later with Jools’ 23.10.2018 !! 

Often strange synchronous events happen.

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