Had quite a good day in the deer park - I saw Red, Pere David's, Manchurian Sika, Chinese Water, Muntjac, Fallow and some rather distant Barasingha. Only Axis and Timor Deer thwarted me!
Had quite a good day in the deer park - I saw Red, Pere David\'s, Manchurian Sika, Chinese Water, Muntjac, Fallow and some rather distant Barasingha. Only Axis and Timor Deer thwarted me!
Did you see Barasingha in the main park?. Nowadays the bulk of them(all?) are normally confined to the grounds of Paris House- its the little 'mini-park' in the far South West corner of Woburn Park(you can drive in there through a big stone arch on the Woburn- Leighton Buzzard road.)
They were in the area you mention - the public footpath from near the main deer park entrance runs up to the top edge of that section and the Barasingha were visible from there, if you knew what to look for! There was one rather orange-looking young male in the main reserve I thought might also be a Barasingha, but it could easily have been a brightly-coloured young Red.
Putting them in there saved them from dying out at Woburn I think. The last time I saw them in the main park they were down to about a dozen and any traffic losses etc would be too much for them. After they were put in that mini-park their numbers increased dramatically, last time I went there were about 70 and they may even have to cull them nowadays- possibly.
I have wondered that many times too. The Woburn Swamp deer have small antlers with blunt tines, very unlike wild ones, so a possible sign of inbreeding, while I've noticed one or two of the Whipsnade ones exhibit 'wall' eyes and white ankle 'socks' -which I think may be also inbreeding. Afaik the two herds are related to each other (Whipsnade's derived from Woburn?) but I doubt have had any fresh blood for many years(ever?).
The Port Lympne ones came from Germany so are unrelated stock but you don't ever see any attempts at exchanges. I am not sure where West Midlands' came from, possibly Port Lympne, and Houghton Hall in Norfolk have some from them too.
I think that(inbreeding) probably goes for most of the other Deer herds at both Woburn and Whipsnade too.
And I don't think I've ever seen the Rusa at Woburn either.
The Port Lympne ones came from Germany so are unrelated stock but you don't ever see any attempts at exchanges. I am not sure where West Midlands' came from, possibly Port Lympne, and Houghton Hall in Norfolk have some from them too.
