Fallow Deer and Humans

Fallow deer have been widely introduced around the world for both food and sport. They were a favourite quarry of medieval huntsmen, who stalked them in the forests of Britain. Later on they became popular as animals to grace the grounds of stately homes. They are adaptable animals and those that escape from parks quickly establish feral (domesticated animal that returns to the wild) herds. Since humans are now the deer's only main predator in Britain, (foxes sometimes take young fawns), the numbers of deer, especially in parks, have to be regularly culled (selectively killed) to prevent overcrowding, disease and destruction of their habitat and in 2020, when you type fallow deer into a search engine, the top 5 links are advertising deer hunting.

Although the fallow deer is common, and increasing in some areas, in Britain, it is less common than it used to be in its original native range - southern Europe, Iran and Asia Minor.