A Pair of Muntjacs

January has been a very wet month, our little lane has flooded and the fields at the end of the garden have once again become lakes, and are home to a pair of mallards and flocks of gulls and terns.

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Today I spent two hours watching the deer on the bank, just outside the conservatory. They obviously were aware of me but took no notice, so I was able to watch them at very close range and of course take photographs.

Apparently both sitka and muntjac live in the village but only the latter visit our garden.

The female appeared first cropping her way along the bank, feeding on the ivy and the bramble and no doubt any tasty new plant shoots just breaking through! She looked healthy and well fed, her coat was a rich chestnut colour, the same shade as my favourite fox visitor. The doe had been here about three quarters of an hour when I noticed a change in her behaviour, she stopped cropping and stood as still as a post. After a several seconds her ears started twisting to left and right and sometimes she lay them back, after about ten minutes she seemed to relax and continued browsing, suddenly she stopped again and I noticed the fur on her back at the rump end was all standing upright, and from the angle I watched it gave her an almost camel-like hunched look. I was surprised at the thickness of her fur.

As I watched her, my eye was caught by a movement to the left, and turning my head I was delighted to see the buck, standing on the bank also cropping ivy and bramble. His face was very differently marked from the females, whose face by comparison was plain, she had a dull chestnut brown face with a well defined dark mid-line stripe running the length of it from her ears down to her nose, still pretty but apart from the stripe devoid of markings, the colour on his face was much more defined. He also sported a pair of horns,and judging by the soft fur encasing them they were new. The velvet, as it is called varied in colour between a rich chestnut, along the front and black at the back. Unlike the doe, he had on his upper neck at the back, behind his ears, a thick bush of bright blond hair. The fur on his body was much darker than the beautiful rich chestnut colour of the females. The buck also had two tiny tusks, hardly visible but definitely there.

The doe spent most of her time browsing on ivy and brambles. The buck however, although he also browsed, spent a great deal of time chewing the cud, he would be standing still when suddenly his little cheeks would bulge as he regurgitated food and he would start chewing, gradually his cheeks would empty, then suddenly swell again as he once more regurgitated and the process would start over. This is the first time I have witnessed this. Eventually the pair sauntered off and I returned to my easy chair and craft work. I feel blessed to have had such a wonderful opportunity to study at length two such attractive creatures and at such close range also.

The photographs show that the velvet is just being worn away on the tips of his horns.