38
Encouragingly, positive evidence was
found at 35% of these sites. Future
surveys can now be devised to monitor
the county population of the water
vole.
It is evident from the distribution map
(which shows records obtained since
1991) that the water vole is still widely
distributed throughout the county.
There is also evidence however, that
the mink is expanding its range: the
future of the water vole may well be
influenced by the spread of this
introduced carnivore.
Fallow deer Dama dama (Linnaeus, 1758)
The current distribution of fallow deer
is based on the location of the county's
Victorian deer parks - the present
population is descended from the
animals that escaped when the
retaining fences fell into disrepair
during the two World Wars. Their
range in Essex was documented in an
earlier edition of the Essex Naturalist
(The Deer of Essex by Donald
Chapman, published in 1977). The
current survey has found that in the
north and west of the county, the
presence of the different herds is less
clearly defined than twenty years ago.
Fallow deer are increasing in number
without colonising the woodlands to
the east of the A12. New records from previously unrecorded areas, which were received in
1998, concerned a buck sighted in 40 Acre Plantation near Stock and several sightings from the
boundary of TL61/71 near Great Leighs.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 16 (1999)