There is something very endearing about deer grazing in the countryside, particularly the males, who, with antlers held high, are truly noble beasts. The Tattingstone deer are well known and attract the attention and admiration of all who pass along the country road from Holbrook to Tattingstone.

There are five species of deer in Suffolk : fallow, roe, red, muntjac and a few Chinese water deer. Only the roe deer is native to England . The Tattingstone deer are fallow deer. The males are called bucks, the females does and the youngsters fawns.

Fallow deer are recognised by their white rumps surrounded by a black border crossed by a tail with a black stripe running down it (their rear end looks as if it is number 111 in black).  They are the only deer that have different coloured coats. In summer most have chestnut or fallow coloured coats, from which the deer take their name, with white spots but there is a variety of colours ranging from white to black. There are several black deer amongst the Tattingstone herd but so far I have not seen any white ones.   During September the deer lose their summer coats and grow a much coarser pelage which is dark grey to black above and lighter grey underneath, without spots.   There is another form of fallow deer, menil deer, which does retain its spots in winter and has brown instead of black stripes on its rump.

Only the male deer, the bucks, have antlers, which are cast and then regrown every year. The mature fallow buck is unique in having flattened or palmate antlers. Prickets, one-year-old males, have antlers which are straight spikes about six inches long, while sorrels, two year olds, have branched antlers which are not palmate. Apart from these exceptions it is not possible to tell the age of a buck from the pattern of its antlers.    Outside the mating or rutting season the bucks live apart from the does except for the prickets who remain with their mothers.

The rutting season starts around the middle of September and lasts until the following January. However, I have watched a buck covering a doe as late as March.   The males mingle with the herd when mating takes place at specified places to which the herd returns every year.   This is the best time to see the males from the Tattingstone road. During the autumn their characteristic groaning noises can be heard coming from the adjacent woods as they demonstrate their dominance over competing males. Although there is only one dominant buck, who makes all the noise, other bucks mix with the herd hoping their turn will come when either the dominant male has become weary or is looking the other way.  Whilst different bucks come and go during the rutting season there are usually at least two bucks which remain with the females until the end of the season.

As spring approaches the bucks leave the herd and move away to cast their antlers. I do not know where they go but it is some distance away, and I doubt if they go beyond the boundaries created by the A137 and the A14 trunk road. New antler growth commences at the end of May and is complete in time for the next rutting season in September.

During June the does also move away, to give birth to their fawns and then return with them in early summer. I suspect they move out somewhere into Holbrook park where there is less disturbance from people and road traffic and there is more vegetation; nettles, bracken and grass in which to hide their offspring.

On a warm summer’s evening the does with their newly born fawns create an enchanting scene as they placidly graze the field boundaries or help themselves to a portion of the growing crops. The fawns have yet to lose their fear of people and they will sometimes come quite close if you are absolutely still. The best way to observe the deer is with binoculars from inside a car. They take very little notice of traffic or any other movement on the roads as long as it keeps moving. Walkers who stop and stare will frighten them off.

If you do spot a deer or the herd while you are out walking pretend you haven’t seen it and keep walking whilst looking at them out of the corner of your eye. Once you are out of sight behind a bush or a tree, stop and look at them more carefully. Moving off the road into a wood or field to get a better view of the animals is hopeless as the deer will panic and run. On one occasion an intruder frightened a buck out of the wood and it bolted in front of my car nearly causing an accident. Happily I did manage to photograph the buck.

If the herd is assembled on one of the fields it is an interesting exercise to try and count them. It is almost impossible. I have estimated as many as 150 at one time but the farmer tells me there are more than 200, usually split up into a number of smaller groups.

Fallow deer, like most species of deer, are thriving in England and as they have no predators except people, their numbers are increasing.

It is thought that the Normans introduced fallow deer into England for the king’s sole hunting pleasure. Later, particularly in Tudor times, it became fashionable for the aristocracy to keep the deer on their estates both for meat and to enhance the beauty of the parks and the social standing of the gentry. Most of the wild deer roaming our countryside today are descended from those deer which have escaped from the parks.  The herd roaming next to the Tattingstone road may have originated from the deer park which once surrounded Woolverstone Hall, built in1776 by the Berner family on the bank of the river Orwell. A survey of 1892 recorded 400 deer being enclosed within the park and described them as spotty or menil deer. By  1936 only about twenty deer remained and these were released or escaped into the wild to form the present large herd of wild deer at Tattingstone.

Besides fallow deer you may be lucky enough to catch sight of a muntjac deer crossing the road or lingering by the roadside feeding on grass, brambles or ivy. They are the smallest of the English deer .The males have very short, straight antlers with two dark lines running down their face. They are native to Asia but the English muntjacs originate from escapes from Woburn Abbey.   Unlike other species, muntjac can breed at any time of the year and their population is growing. Although they are difficult to see, as they prefer to live in thick woodland cover I have seen them and their young on the Tattingstone road.

Russell Edwards , 19 Ipswich Road, Holbrook, Suffolk

© 2004   Suffolk Naturalists' Society