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I meant to carry on up dating this thread but then for some reason I stalled, so I will now carry on where I left off, with some more shots of western roe deer taken at home in England.

 

Last summer just after I decided to update this thread I thought I’d see I could take a few new deer shots, setting off in the late afternoon at the beginning ofJuly, I headed for a field next to a wood where I can almost guarantee there will be at least one roe deer, usually more. I walked up to the top of a hill and then a short distance to the corner of the field, went over to the fence expecting to spot a deer but saw nothing. Deciding that it looked like there were no deer there, I walked along the fence to get to suitable place where I could climb over, concentrating on not catching myself on the barbed wire or dropping my camera, I carefully crossed into the field, only to find just as I was putting my foot down, that there was in fact a group of four deer just a few feet away beyond some long grass, that I had completely failed to notice. A buck, a doe and two big kids, I had no option but to just try and crouch down behind the grass and hope they hadn’t spotted me. Of course, the buck had seen me and didn’t think he liked what he saw, I tried to keep still but inevitably when you have to freeze you’re always in a not very comfortable position, I hoped if I kept still he might not be able to see enough of me and would settle down. At the same time, I was hoping I might be able to get a couple of shots before they spooked, however my autofocus kept fixing on the waving grass stems and not the deer. I managed to take one shot which I assumed would be a dud and then attempted to reposition myself to get a clear shot free of the grass, as I did so the buck looked in my direction, gave a loud bark and bounded off, followed by the other three.

 

In fact, my one photo turned out OK

 

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Cursing my carelessness, I decided to keep walking out across the field and then over to the wood, I didn't find anything else to photograph inside the wood, but on returning much later to the field, I found that the deer had in fact come back and I was able to take a number of photos, however they were quite some distance away, and the following crop of the doe and her kid was the nicest shot I took.

 

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The next time, when I went back to the same field a few days later, I made sure I was a lot more careful and approached the fence from behind some small trees. In the late evening, positioning myself against one of the trees I had a slightly more successful time and was able to get some nice shots of the same two well grown kids from last year, that I’d seen on my previous visit.

 

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Satisfied that I had probably obtained some good photos, I also took a short video.

 

 

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Savannenfuchs
On ‎06‎.‎03‎.‎2013 at 1:37 PM, GreenEye said:

Trying again, wasn't going through...

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Great Picture, it is the first Kansu deer I have seen in colour. Where exactly was it?

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  • 3 weeks later...

After taking those shots of the roe kids the buck put in an appearance again albeit quite far away.

 

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Then walking through another small bit of woodland on my way home, I surprised a different buck out in the next-door field, because he was out in the open I had a good view between the trees, he on the other hand couldn’t see me that well. Allowing me to take a couple of shots that turned out okay considering it was starting to get quite dark. 

 

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I mentioned earlier the idea of calling in deer using a device known as a Buttolo, I first came across this device while reading an article about muntjac in which someone described using one to call in one of these deer to photograph it. Being a birder I’m very familiar with using calls to attract certain hard to see species or ones you want to photograph, but the idea of trying this with deer hadn’t seriously occurred to me before. The article described how the deer came really close, after reading this I decided to look at YouTube to see if there were any videos of deer calling and found quite a lot. Obviously, calling with a Buttolo is a technique primarily used by stalkers and deer hunters, to attract deer that they can then shoot, so if you have a problem with seeing animals being shot I don’t suggest you look up such videos. Seeing how well this technique works and just how close the deer will come, towards the end of last July, I decided I would get one as the roe rut was just starting. I ordered a Buttolo from Amazon.

 

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My first attempt at using the device wasn’t a great success but it may have been just a little too early in the rut, I had also chosen to position myself out in a field where there are always deer and this was probably a mistake as despite being sat down the vegetation was not high enough so I was likely too conspicuous. However, I managed to get a distant roe doe to look at me and she was clearly listening but she didn’t come closer however I wasn’t certain that the calls I was making were quite right. In another field I found a buck and got him to very briefly look, but he soon disappeared.

 

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For my next attempt I positioned myself with my back to a wood looking out into field, where there was in fact already a buck, I’d taken a couple of shots of him but I must have inadvertently spooked him because he retreated into the wood. However, he didn’t run too fast or bark so I started calling in the hope of bringing him back, before attempting this I had wondered quite what I would do, if I attracted a deer from within the wood just behind me. After some attempts at calling I heard some rustling of something moving behind me and then heard it again closer, I turned around just in time to see a muntjac dashing off through the undergrowth. It must come to the call but then had seen my movement and didn’t like what it saw, these little deer are called barking deer for a very good reason, the muntjac barked loudly and continuously as it disappeared back through the wood, guaranteeing that I would be unlikely to see any more deer that evening.

 

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The next time I went for walk going to a different area, when calling any species, you don’t want to overdo it in one location, after accidentally spooking three roes including a young kid that had been hiding in the grass I thought I’d blown my chances. However, passing a shelterbelt of trees I spotted and was able to get a couple of shots of a kid.

 

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Roe kid still showing some faint spots 

 

I then continued on my way walking along below another small wood, calling intermittently in a slightly absent-minded way as I thought I don’t know if I’m doing this right as I’m really not sure this is working. Just as I was passing some hawthorn trees I heard a thunder of hooves as two deer shot passed me, I hadn’t been prepared for that and thought that I had perhaps blown it again. However, I then realised that it was a doe and a kid that had run by, and could see them heading away, not knowing quite what would happen, I gave a few blasts of the call. I wasn’t prepared for what happened next, the two deer turned and started heading towards me, I was carrying my camera on a monopod which I’d made the mistake of not extending, which made taking photos more difficult than it should have been. What also makes it tricky is having to put away the Buttolo as the deer is coming in, so that you can get both hands on your camera. You either need to just keep it in your pocket as you are using it, this will muffle the sound slightly but this can be a good thing, then you can just take your hand out of your pocket without losing it, or you need to tie it to your belt or hang it on some string around your neck, so you can just drop it. The kid was very likely the same one I'd already seen as when they first ran by they had come from that direction, the fact that I could hear the noise of their hooves bearing in mind their not the biggest of animals is an indication of how close they were when they passed me.

 

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The doe came really close to have a look at where the call was coming from, but couldn’t see a deer just me with my camera, not wearing camouflage I was probably quite visible, she didn’t like what she saw so turned and ran. Trying to get my back up against one of the trees so I would be less visible I called again and to my amazement she wheeled around and came straight back to me, her kid following almost at her heels.

 

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Again, she didn’t like what she saw and ran, again I called and again she turned and came back for another look, in the end after she’d done this about 4-5 times and looked from every angle she decided that there was definitely no amorous buck waiting for her just me which she didn’t really like the look of, so they disappeared off into the wood. I hadn’t anticipated that it would work as well as this, that a deer would come so close and would keep coming back after initially running.

 

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The urge to mate is I guess so strong, that the effect of hearing the call was almost instant and brought her back to me even though she clearly wasn’t happy with what she was looking at. By the time they left, I’d already decided that I had disturbed them quite enough and that it was time to stop and move on. My few further attempts yielded no results put perhaps next rutting season I’ll give it another go. As with calling in birds this is not something you should do to often, as you may juts disturb the deer and either drive them away or get to the point where they won't respond anymore, with roe deer the call is really only effective during the rut, so you can only really use the device for a limited period anyway.  

 

 

Edited by inyathi
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Reeves’s muntjac

 

The smallest species of deer in the UK is the Reeves’s muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi ) this introduced species is endemic to China and their alternate name is Chinese muntjac, they were introduced to the Woburn Park Estate in Bedfordshire in the early part of the 20th century. Due to a combination of escapes and deliberate releases they quickly became established in the English countryside and have spread across the whole of southern Britain colonising most of England and Wales, there are also populations established in Scotland. In time they will likely be found everywhere in mainland Britain and will soon become if they are not already our most common deer species. They are like other muntjacs also known as barking deer, when disturbed they produce a loud dog like bark, they do also bark when breeding. They are quite unusual in appearance and often described as looking either rather dog like or rather pig like, which can confuse people who've never seen one before. 

 

Unlike our other deer in the UK Reeves’s muntjac have no fixed rutting season and breed throughout the year, does are capable of breeding at seven months old. After a gestation period of seven months they give birth to a single kid and are ready to mate again within a few days. The bucks are armed with small antlers and large canine teeth, when fighting one buck will try to push the other off balance with it’s antlers and if successful will then attempt to slash it with its canines. As adults they don’t really have any predators perhaps the greatest threat are dogs, despite their small size they will defend themselves courageously if cornered, pet dogs often come off worse in a confrontation, particularly with a doe defending her kid. However, quite a few kids are taken by foxes, this though doesn’t seem to have had much effect on their numbers. Before they became as well established as they have here, it was thought that they might not spread that far or really even survive because it was assumed that they might not be able to cope too well with our winters. This view has proved entirely wrong, and they have shown themselves to be more than able to cope, it will though be interesting to see how far they spread in the Highlands of Scotland. Although they are not considered a pest to agriculture and are not a significant problem for commercial forestry they do have considerable impact on our native flora, eating important woodland wildflowers like devil's bit scabious, blue bells, wild orchids (various types), red yarrow, oxlips and honey suckle amongst other plants. It is thought that their excessive browsing of understory vegetation in our woodlands has a significant impact on woodland bird species and they have been implicated in the decline in nightingale populations. They can also have a significant effect on the natural regeneration of coppice woodland.   

 

At some point very recently, some irresponsible people introduced Reeves’s muntjac to Ireland where the species had been entirely absent, the deer were presumably taken from England and transported across the Irish Sea and released illegally in the Irish Republic presumably for hunting. Since around 2008 there have been sightings of muntjac in County Wicklow, they have since spread to Northern Ireland as was confirmed when one was killed by a car. Although there have been calls to try and eradicate them before they become established, the likelihood is that it is already too late and they will soon be well established throughout Ireland.

 

They have also been introduced to the Netherlands and Belgium although as far as I know there don’t seem to too many there at present, and there's also an introduced population in Japan.

 

The following map shows their Chinese and mainland UK distributions but not these more recent introductions.

 

Distribution map

 

Muntjac in my experience are far more secretive than roe deer and being much smaller does make them harder to see, while I do see them reasonably often it is usually as they are running away, so whereas I have many photos of roe deer, I only have a few of Reeves’s muntjac. Unless they have become habituated they are not easy animals to get close to.

 

 

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Doe 

 

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Buck in velvet, you can clearly see his elongated canines.

 

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Buck in velvet

 

The following video is a compilation of trail camera videos taken using a Little Acorn and a Bushnell Trophy Cam.

 

 

 

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Interesting out-of-focus bokah there on most photos @inyathi, almost like a mirror lens. What lens are you using?

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@graynomad Thanks, I’m using a Canon 100-400mm currently the mk2 version, but for many years since before I went digital I was using the mk1 version, I don’t suppose there’s much difference between them, all the shots I’ve posted in this thread were taken with a 100-400. That I managed to get good shots is almost entirely down to my camera, I’m currently using an EOS 70D and the most recent roe deer shots that I posted were taken with this camera, earlier shots excluding scanned slides were taken with either an EOS 50D or a 20D. Although I really should know what I’m doing by now, I still think it is as much by accident as design that I sometimes get some good shots.    

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  • 3 months later...
offshorebirder

This is a White-tailed Deer fawn I saw today - we did not tarry so as not to flush it.

 

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  • 11 months later...
melproffit

Vancouver Island 2007

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melproffit

My yard/neighborhood 2010

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melproffit

outside Denali NP, AK, 2011

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melproffit

My yard, WA, 2012

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  • 1 month later...
Towlersonsafari

On the estae in morvern we did see, by our cottage these Red deer with the antlers still in velvet.

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  • 5 months later...

Fallow deer stag during the rut at Bradgate Park, Leicester.

 

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Bradgate is one of several traditional deer parks in the UK (Richmond and Bushey are probably better known) established centuries ago to provide hunting venues for the king. The herds of deer (Red and Fallow at Bradgate) are managed but have a large area of land to roam.

This image was taken early on a frosty morning. Nikon D500, 200-500mm lens @500mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec, ISO500

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  • 2 months later...

Two pictures of a moose (or elk depending on where you come from) take last november in Sweden, near Stockholm. 

Pictures were taken with a canon eos 80D and 70-300mm lens. 

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  • 11 months later...

 I was out at dawn today and spent an enjoyable 40 minutes stalking a group of 3 roe deer in the mist and snow. Well and truly spotted at this point so I backed off and left them to it.

 

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Nikon D500, PF500/5.6, 1/320 sec, ISO 900

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  • 4 months later...
melproffit

Shenandoah NP May '21

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melproffit

Great Smoky Mountains NP May '21   we saw many more Elk here just not many real good photo opps.

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Red Brocket

 

The Red Brocket (Mazama americana) is a fairly small deer species native to the north of South America  it occurs in the far north of Argentina; Bolivia, Brazil; Colombia; Ecuador; French Guiana; Guyana; Paraguay; Peru; Suriname; Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela, despite hunting this deer species is still fairly common, except in areas where its habitat has been completely lost and converted to fields of soy or other crops. On my first visit to Brazil, I was unlucky and missed seeing Red Brocket, the first one I ever saw was in the early morning, at Atta Lodge in the Iwokrama Forest in Guyana.

 

Range map

 

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Red Brocket Deer, Atta Lodge Iwokrama Forest in Guyana by inyathi, on Flickr

 

On my second visit to Brazil, I saw quite a few Red Brocket

 

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Red Brocket Deer, SouthWild Pantanal, Matto Grosso Brazil by inyathi, on Flickr

 

 

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Pouso Alegre, Pantanal, Matto Grosso Brazil

 

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Pouso Alegre 

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The Marsh Deer (Blastocerus dichotomus) is the largest deer species in South America, as its name suggests it is a wetland species, its range has been much reduced due to the loss of its habitat, often as a result of dam building that has destroyed floodplains, competition with livestock is another threat and of course its large size, makes it a tempting target for hunters. It still occurs in the north of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Peru, but is extinct in Uruguay.

 

These deer are quite easily seen in the Pantanal in Brazil.

 

Range Map   

 

 

These photos are from my first visit to Brazil in 2012

 

Marsh Deer

 

SouthWild Pantanal 

 

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Stag in velvet

 

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Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas

 

The last stag was seen from a boat whilst searching for jaguars in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas near Porto Jofre, from recollection this was the only deer, I've seen in the park on two visits, they are more easily seen alongside the Trans-Pantanal Highway.  

Edited by inyathi
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These photos are from my second visit to Brazil in 2016

 

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Marsh Deer Hind, near SouthWild Pantanal, Matto Grosso Brazil

 

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Hind SouthWild Pantanal

 

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Stag

 

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Marsh Deer have quite long hooves, not unlike that of a Sitatunga, an adaptation to their wetland habitat

 

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Young stag in velvet

 

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Stag in velvet, Trans-Pantanal Highway near Pouso Alegre

Edited by inyathi
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Ordinarily I wouldn't be that excited to see sambar, but I was very pleased to see these animals on a night drive, in Cat Tien National Park in Vietnam.

 

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Sambar hind, Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam, this hind shows very clearly the so-called sore spot typical of sambar, mentioned in an earlier post

 

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Cat Tien National Park is probably the only protected area left in Vietnam, where sambar are still fairly common, these deer were once found throughout country, but unfortunately sambar venison is so popular in Vietnam, that bushmeat hunters have all but extirpated them from everywhere else, including most protected areas. As an illustration of how popular their meat is and how rare they now are, some restaurants that specialise in bushmeat, will try to pass off muntjac venison as sambar, because they cannot get sambar venison anymore. Poaching for bushmeat is a huge issue in Vietnam and neighbouring countries, all large mammals are now very rare in Indochina, despite there still be being plenty of habitat. On this visit to Vietnam, I don’t recall seeing venison on the menu anywhere, though not everywhere we went had an English menu, so I can’t be sure it wasn’t on offer in some restaurants, we went to, I would definitely not have ordered it, if it had been. Any tourists visiting Indochina ought to be aware of the bushmeat issue, and avoid ordering anything in a restaurant, that could be wild meat. Tourists who aren’t aware of the problem and who eat venison in their home country, might not realise that they should not eat venison in Indochina. I happily eat venison at home, now and again, because I know exactly where it has come from, if I went to a decent restaurant anywhere here, I would not be at all concerned to see it on the menu, whereas I would never order venison anywhere in the Far East, where you can guarantee that it has been hunted unsustainably, from the nearest forest.     

Edited by inyathi
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  • 3 months later...
Towlersonsafari

on a recent trip to the New Forest the cottage was visited by a small herd- 2 females 2 youngsters- of Fallow deer the first night they came just early enough to allow me to take a photo- albeit a tad grainy 1/40th at 800 isa f4 using the olympus 300 f4 so not too bad perhaps

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