Scientific name - Capreolus capreolus

There are six species of deer currently living wild in Britain. These are Red deer (Cervus elaphus), Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), Fallow deer (Dama dama), Muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi), Sika (Cervus nippon) and Chinese water deer (Hydropotes inermis).

Roe deer (like Red deer) are native to Britain, having been present here for over 10,000 years. They became extinct in England during the 18th century, but survived in wooded parts of the Central and North West Highlands of Scotland. Many populations were reintroduced in England during Victorian times and they are now widespread and abundant today. Indeed recent reports have claimed that Britain’s deer population is out of control with numbers now reaching levels that are causing serious damage to Britain’s woodlands, its fauna and its bird-life. A medium-sized deer with a body length of 3 to 4.5 feet and a shoulder height ranging between 2 to 2.5 feet, the roe is mostly brown in colour, turning reddish in the summer and darker grey in the winter. They have a white rump patch with a practically invisible tail approximately 1 inch long. Only the males have antlers; relatively short ones that they begin to grow in November after shedding them in October. The roe doe is smaller in size than the buck and their white rump patch is the shape of an inverted heart (often with a tuft of white hair), whereas males have a kidney-shaped patch. Roe Deer tend to be solitary in summer, but can form small, loose groups in winter.