Lion Dung for Roe Deer
The voice at the other end of the phone was desperate. Old John loves his garden, overlooking the river, but his prize shrubs seemed to be getting more ragged by the day.
Then, early one morning, he discovered the culprits. A pair of deer were contentedly
munching at his plants. No matter how often he chased them, next day they were back
enjoying a meal at his expense.
By the time that John called me he was really at the end of his tether. Many of his
neighbours in the village were also suffering from the marauding deer but nothing they
could do would deter the beasts.
The council pest control man had been asked to help but mice and wasps nests were more in his line. Deer weren't the sort of thing he was often called upon to deal with.
In a hard winter its quite common for red deer to leave their mountain habitats and move down to the glens in search of shelter and food. But those deer which were causing havoc to the village gardeners were roe, a species which is normally confined to woodlands.
Like so many animals, however, roe deer are great opportunists and will snaffle an easy meal wherever they can find it. Rose bushes and young fruit trees seem to be high on the menu.
Of course, so long as they don't do too much damage, most folk love to see deer around the place. What John really wanted was a way of discouraging the deer without harming them.
He was a wee bit surprised with the cure I suggested, but he promised to give it a try. I told him to get in touch with the nearby Safari Park and beg, borrow or steal some lion or tiger dung.
It seems that all deer have an instinctive fear of the spoor of the big predatory cats and the lion dung remedy has been used a lot by gardeners in other parts of the country where there has been a population explosion amongst deer.
The Bambi-like roe deer is the smallest of our native species and is usually quite a secretive animal. The best chance of seeing them is just after dawn when they often come out of the woods to graze in open pasture. If disturbed, they will gracefully loup over the fence back into the cover of the trees.
Unlike the much larger red deer, roe don't go around in herds. Usually only two or
three are seen together.
During the winter their coats are a dull greyish-brown but, by this time of year, they
become much brighter; almost orange. They have a white rump patch which is very obvious
when they bound away from any danger and gives a visible warning to any other deer in the
vicinity.
In winter the bucks do not have antlers although they will have grown back by the mating season. A lot of the damage which roe bucks do to forest trees is a result of using their antlers to strip bark from trees during the summer.
In the woods they feed mainly on the leaves of small trees and shrubs although I have seen them carefully nibbling brambles from a thorn patch and its not unknown for them to go for the windfalls in an apple orchard.
I haven't heard whether John managed to get some lion dung to protect his garden plants from the roe deer. You never know, he may find that it is also a very effective manure for his rose beds.