Damage Explained. Oh dear! Deer back again.

Earlier in the year we showed a picture of damage to some of the trees in the park. 

At first we thought this was vandalism.  Then someone looked closely at the pattern of the damage and suggested that maybe Montjac (also called Monkjack) Deer were causing it.  There are many open spaces in Birmingham; and many of those are linked by a network of green corridors.  These corridors make it very easy for wild animals to roam through the city, and Montjac Deer have been seen in other parks and open spaces.

 

Montjac Deer (with permission from Sally Ilett, taken from Flickr)

Then someone noticed that the same sort of damage was caused higher up the trunks of some of the trees - too high for Montjacs which are not very tall.

This week the culprit has been spotted - damaging the trees.  It was a Fallow Deer (bigger than a Montjac) rubbing its antlers against the trees to rid itself of its felt (the furry covering on its antlers).  The deer do this at the end of winter or in the springtime, which is why we had first spotted the damage back in February.  This deer ran away, off towards the old canal and the cover there, off in the direction of Weoley Castle, before anyone could photograph it.


But the mystery is solved.

How interesting - 2013 with deer in the park again.  Back in medieval times the area of the park and the land all around it was a deer park.