Black Deer Encounter

[Ermintruder]

Having driven for decades over the hills/mountains and glens of Scotland and the North of England, I've had many close encounters with roe and red deer.

This morning, around 0815, I witnessed something very unusual, which was three or more black deer, in a herd crossing the road at speed (narrowly-avoided by me, requiring a full emergency stop from 60+ mph down to zero, in a couple of car's lengths).

The reasons I can be certain that these were genuinely-black, and not just a trick of the (low) light included:

• There were one or two normal/non-black deer in amongst the herd for comparison
• I'm very familiar with what conventional deer look like, in a wide variety of settings
• In the shadows cast by trees, they were totally-invisible, unlike their fawn-coloured fellows

This all happened very fast, but I'm certain of the details.

I'd never heard of, nor seen, a melanistic(?) Deer until today. How rare are they?

(stock pic)

(Mods, if this is insufficiently-crypto for the thread, then please feel free to relocate. I did feel it didn't sit properly in Minor Strangeness, particularly since I've no doubt these were real animals....just very unusual (and multiple) ones)

 

[maximus otter]

Black fallow deer are not at all uncommon:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallow_deer#Description

Sika are also commonly very dark or black:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sika_deer#Description

maximus otter

 

[Mythopoeika]

I've never seen more than one deer at a time out in the wild.
To see 3 in one go would be a special occasion.

 

[Min Bannister]

Yes I have seen black fallow deer before. Can you say what kind of deer you saw in your brief glimpse Erm?

 

[maximus otter]

I've never seen more than one deer at a time out in the wild.
To see 3 in one go would be a special occasion.

Come out stalking with me sometime. If it’s out of season or out of range, you’ll see loads...



maximus otter

 

[Mythopoeika]

Come out stalking with me sometime. If it’s out of season or out of range, you’ll see loads...



maximus otter

Why the bashy-head smiley, Mr Otter?

 

[maximus otter]

Why the bashy-head smiley, Mr Otter?

Because l often see loads of deer (10 roe in one field alone last time), but - frustratingly - they were all does and therefore out of season. When does come into season soon, they’ll all vanish, and the fields will be infested with illegal-to-shoot bucks...



maximus otter

 

[ramonmercado]

Because l often see loads of deer (10 roe in one field alone last time), but - frustratingly - they were all does and therefore out of season. When does come into season soon, they’ll all vanish, and the fields will be infested with illegal-to-shoot bucks...



maximus otter

With hindsight I reckon Myth caused you hartache.

 

[Mythopoeika]

[Groan]

 

[ramonmercado]

[Groan]

It was worth a try doe.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Oh deer.

 

[ramonmercado]

Oh deer.

A good fallow up.

 

[Ermintruder]

Yes I have seen black fallow deer before. Can you say what kind of deer you saw in your brief glimpse Erm?

I'd say by shape and size, just standard roe deer (not juniors, but still fairly young).

I've no expertise in this at all, but again I will say that in all my encounters with deer (whether on the road, or up in the hills, over 40+ years) I've never ever seen a single black one. But I may just have been in the wrong places at the wrong time.

 

[maximus otter]

With hindsight I reckon Myth caused you hartache.

Don’t worry, l won’t sika confrontation.

maximus otter

 

[Coal]

Don’t worry, l won’t sika confrontation.

maximus otter

Your hart's in the right place.

 

[Min Bannister]

I'd say by shape and size, just standard roe deer (not juniors, but still fairly young).

I have an ace book on British Mammals which I will look up when I get home instead of faffing about with semi-informative web pages but in the meantime there is a distribution map of fallow deer so you can see if they are available in the area you were in. I am also trying to remember what kind of deer were around Loch Ness when we were up last time. They were very dark coloured and lurked in the trees making scary noises. I am sure my book will tell me if you get black roe deer.

 

[lordmongrove]

In 1985 i saw a black Giraffe in Tanzania.

 

[Ermintruder]

there is a distribution map of fallow deer so you can see if they are available in the area you were in

Min, that map is quite comprehensive, it also shows roe deer populations as well. The location I was at (west of Stirling) appears to show roe and fallow populations, so either possibility is valid.

I'm now entirely-unsure as to the difference between fallow and roe deer. All I can say about the trio of black deer is that they were not red-deer sized, and their non-black deer-coloured comrades were also non-red sized.

I may in my lifetime have sometimes seen fallow deer and been unaware of the fact that they weren't roe deer (if that makes sense?). But in any case, none of them (previously, either roe or fallow) have been black, before.

And dark black, at that (darker, I'd say, than the one in the stock picture above).

In 1985 i saw a black Giraffe in Tanzania.

Wow. That must've looked really odd.

Is there any mammal that doesn't display rare melanistic pigmentation? Or am I drawing an extreme conclusion?

 

[David Plankton]

Is there any mammal that doesn't display rare melanistic pigmentation?

If the normal colour for the species is black then it might be very hard to tell.

 

[oldrover]

Is there any mammal that doesn't display rare melanistic pigmentation? Or am I drawing an extreme conclusion?

<--------

 

[Ulalume]

Great black deer sighting, @Ermintruder. I've never heard of black deer in my region, though occasionally there are rumors of a rare white one.

As an aside, for the longest time, whenever fallow deer were mentioned, I thought it must mean not pregnant, or perhaps sterile, like a fallow field. Not exactly a deer expert here.

 

[Min Bannister]

Min, that map is quite comprehensive, it also shows roe deer populations as well. The location I was at (west of Stirling) appears to show roe and fallow populations, so either possibility is valid.

I'm now entirely-unsure as to the difference between fallow and roe deer. All I can say about the trio of black deer is that they were not red-deer sized, and their non-black deer-coloured comrades were also non-red sized.

Annoyingly my ace book is somewhat inaccessible at the moment but my animal notebook has drawings of deer bums and notes about tail length etc so it can't be that easy unless you are already familiar. A set of honking great palmate antlers would indicate a fallow stag though.

I think it was sika deer at Loch Ness by the way. They are also in the size range and according to my notebook, can go black in winter!

 

[Bullseye]

Around here (East Sussex) there is a lot of colour variation in Fallows. One bachelor herd I saw of about 12 individuals, half were black to charcoal, never seen that amount since. The most beautiful buck I have ever seen had a jet black head,neck and upper back, the rest of his body was a deep chestnut brown. Saw him 2 years running on his rutting stand.Fantastic beast.