after this date. Red deer were caught wild from the Forest and kept at Loughton
until released for hunting. They were not normally killed and were, presumably,
re-used. This type of hunting continued sporadically until the early nineteenth
century. About 1820 it was ordered that the remaining red deer be caught and
taken to Windsor Forest and this was largely done. The few remaining deer were
hunted or poached, the last stag is reported to have been killed at West Ham,
probably in the late 1820's.
This was not quite the end of red deer in Epping Forest. Whitehead (1964)
records that a six-year old stag was released in 1858, hunted by City aldermen
and its head placed in the Guildhall. A less temporary re-introduction was
planned and in 1880 a stag and two hinds were released. Unfortunately these
had to be destroyed soon afterwards because "they proved to be so
mischievous". (Buxton, 1898).
Roe Deer
E. N. Buxton was also one of the instigators of the re-introduction of roe
deer. Roe had probably been absent for several centuries when two does and
four bucks from Dorset were released at Loughton. These bred, and reinforced
by a further introduction of eight animals, formed the basis of a small herd,
(Buxton, 1898). This herd reached a peak of 43 animals in 1899 but suffered a
rapid decline between 1906-1910. A few animals lingered on, the last ones
disappearing in the mid-1920's (Chapman, 1977).
Fallow Deer
The fallow deer of Epping Forest are famous and although their origin is
shrouded in mystery they have certainly been present for many centuries. They
are often described as 'black' fallow deer and it is true that the vast majority of
them have the dark coat in which the dappling of lighter spots is clearly visible
in the summer coat but is obscured in the winter coat. This colour variety is by
no means unique to Epping Forest. What is unusual is that nearly all the deer
are of this one colour phase. Whitehead (1964) considered that this colour was a
genetic dominant and made the frequent error of assuming that genetic
dominants automatically become commoner in freely breeding populations.
This increase would only occur if natural or articial selection favoured the
survival of the darker deer.
Due to uncontrolled hunting the Forest fallow deer were nearly extinct in
1860 (only ten animals remaining) and one of the first tasks of the Conservators
after 1878 was to protect the remaining deer. This they did very successfully and
numbers exceeded 170 before the end of the century according to the Con-
servators' own estimates (see figure 2). At this level the population was con-
sidered to be too high and after an unpopular and somewhat farcical attempt to
reintroduce public hunts, culling by skilled marksmen was used.
In the last quarter of a century active culling seems to have been in-
frequent, although injured animals have been killed and the preservation of the
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