This isn't a wild deer native here - they were originally in a pen being kept for their velvet and then later simply released into the reserve. I'm not even treating them as wild animals because they are tame individuals and fed by visitors.
My question is, has anyone seen Red Deer with spots before? It looks very odd and I'm wondering if it might be a hybrid deer.
@Chlidonias I'm not familiar enough with this species, but maybe there was some selective breeding taking place (or inbreeding) that allowed this trait to be expressed? Because they start out spotted, I assume that a tiny fraction of individuals could retain some spotting into adulthood. It's an interesting color pattern and it looks like a pure Red Deer otherwise.
