Road Kill Roe Deer

Early on Sunday morning I spent some time at Longrock watching one of the local Buck Roe Deer doing the rounds on the look-out for resident Does, so sightings are quite by chance and appreciated when they do occur,  This particular encounter only lasted as long as it took the buck to walk the hedgerow to one corner of the field where it effortlessly cleared the hedgerow and wire fence to disappear into the adjoining woodland.

Early on Monday morning I saw this Buck again but this time I was far from Happy to see it for as drove down the A394 towards Longrock early AM  I caught sight of it lying dead at the roadside,  On inspection it had obviously been the victim of a road traffic accident, probably having strayed on to the road during the night while moving from one area to another,  You cannot fence such animals in but I was upset to see such a fine example of our local wildlife that I had worked with the previous day fall victim to such an end,  I lifted the deer off of the road and laid it to rest in some long roadside grasses so as to avoid any further damage or unwanted attention,  I guess natural predators will do the rest.

Roadside image taken by Peter Tonkin