Deer damage?

[comanche 2,989]

I have a really good customer with a big house , a garden to match , a couple of fields and a bit of wood that  get a bit of trade from fallow deer .

He also has a cast iron statue of a stag . It's  of some generic ,indeterminate species unknown to any but possibly  it's third world fabricators.   Though I suppose it might in poor light   , at a distance pass for a red deer  . Except that it is only about the size of a roe .

Last year it was victim of a mysterious assailant and left laying with broken antlers beneath an apple tree .  

I suggested that rather than a   vandal ,  a neighbour with a vendetta against tacky statues or a selective mini tornado that took out the stag whilst leaving the apple tree intact ,the assailant might have been one of the local fallow bucks .

Anyway the little chap had his antlers welded back on and was placed upright beneath his favourite apple tree. It must  be his favourite tree coz he never moves away from it . 

Fast forward to the same time this year . The stag is once again found lying dead with his antlers spread asunder!

There were  no witnesses to the attack but according to the gardener it coincided with the overnight destruction of a a lot of plants.  

It might not stand up in court but circumstancial evidence does rather point to one of the testosterone-fueled rutting rutting bucks as the perpetrator.  

I can sort of envisage the scene.

  A big fallow takes one look at the statue and thinks.                           "That little runt is on my patch and hasn't even the decency to respond to my threats.  I'm going to show him the error of his ways . Ha, he's  not even fighting back . And he's on the ground now ; playing dead eh?    Well that won't  save you. I'm gonna scatter your stupid little unpalmated antlers across this garden."

 

 

Edited October 7, 2022 by comanche

[David.evans 5,323]

Trail cam would be very interesting  

[comanche 2,989]

1 hour ago, David.evans said:

Trail cam would be very interesting  

Yes  indeed.  

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

Is that in Wiltshire  by any chance mate 

[comanche 2,989]

9 hours ago, foxdropper said:

Is that in Wiltshire  by any chance mate 

No ; Sussex.    Is this sort of thing common in wiltshire ?

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

45 minutes ago, comanche said:

No ; Sussex.    Is this sort of thing common in wiltshire ?

There’s a bronze deer in a garden near Malmesbury near me mate that looks very similar to that .Also one in Gloucester near Birdlip hill .

 

[comanche 2,989]

A bit of an update. I went back to do a job there ,and had a wander about the garden.  Sure enough     ,  there is plenty of deer damage.

I had to grin when l saw this though.

[sussex 5,777]

Middle of October the fallow rut is on ..they do like to shred a bush or two ..

[jok 3,244]

Sussex. This forum has gone to sleep. What can we do to revitalise it ? Jok