Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex to Suffolk! Sika deer, possibly 40 or
50, were said to be in the Stisted and Coggeshall area (TL82) in February 1953
and were thought to have originated from Marks Hall Park. However, only
fallow deer were kept in the park and as Whitehead (1964) concludes, the so-
called sika deer were almost certainly fallow deer which were abundant in the
area.
1965-1976 records
There have been a few reports of wild sika deer occurring in Essex. Seven
deer, which were thought to be sika, were reported from Rockell's Wood
(TL4736), Elmdon, in February 1965 and a gamekeeper reported a sika stag in
nearby Howe Wood (TL4939) in Strethall in May 1966. In 1965, a farmer stated
that he thought some of the deer on his land were 'Japanese' having originated
from nearby Weald Park (TQ5794). However, numerous observations in the
area over the past 12 years have failed to reveal the presence of sika deer, only
large numbers of fallow deer. A sika stag was reported also in Weald Park in
1970-1971.
A "stag roe deer" was reported to have been present in Hatfield Forest
(TL52) in 1967 (Walsh, 1968) but the accompanying photograph clearly
depicted a sika stag. The stag, together with three does, was seen in the Forest
again by the same person in 1968. In 1970, a report was received that a member
of the St. Hubert Club, who had been shooting deer in Hatfield Forest, thought
that there was a sika deer in the Forest.
DISCUSSION
Chinese Muntjac Deer
Muntjac deer are secretive animals and they are probably more widespread
in the county than the records indicate. The origins of these animals in Essex
are unknown. Surprisingly, the earliest records of this deer in Essex are from
the north-east quarter of the county and not from the west, close to the border
with Hertfordshire. The Mammal Recorder for Hertfordshire, Michael Clark,
informs me that the first record in that county was of one shot by a gamekeeper,
Percy Hickman, in Broxbourne Wood (TL3507) in 1938. Broxbourne Wood is
only about 3 km from the Essex boundary. Again, the Hertfordshire muntjac
record is from the eastern edge of the county and not from the north-west, closer
to the Woburn estate in Bedfordshire from where muntjac deer originally
escaped. Similarly, a small deer shot in 1940 at Parham Wood (TM3061) near
Framlingham in east Suffolk appears to have been a muntjac deer and not a roe
deer as provisionally identified (Page, 1953). These coincidences are presumably
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