Would it be a sika ?

steelfixerking

myself and a mate went out for a spin with the lamp tonight just to kill an hour it was very bright so we weren't that serious but went a usual route which is always good for a long shot at a fox, he was lamping about ten minutes and spotted eyes at about 350 yards he said it wasn't a fox but it wasn't livestock either so i got out with the pee shooter to have a look at what it was. when i looked up at it was a deer of some type i never seen before, it was the colour of a badger and had antlers going back over its head, similar body size to fallow. my mate looked up at it and taught it was a wild goat but i whistled and up it jumped and away. would it be a hybrid of some type? there is no deer in about five mile radius of this spot and it was on it's own. the two of us are experienced rifle men and never seen anything like this lad before.

Tackleberrywho

steelfixerking wrote: »

myself and a mate went out for a spin with the lamp tonight just to kill an hour it was very bright so we weren't that serious but went a usual route which is always good for a long shot at a fox, he was lamping about ten minutes and spotted eyes at about 350 yards he said it wasn't a fox but it wasn't livestock either so i got out with the pee shooter to have a look at what it was. when i looked up at it was a deer of some type i never seen before, it was the colour of a badger and had antlers going back over its head, similar body size to fallow. my mate looked up at it and taught it was a wild goat but i whistled and up it jumped and away. would it be a hybrid of some type? there is no deer in about five mile radius of this spot and it was on it's own. the two of us are experienced rifle men and never seen anything like this lad before.

In the North West?

steelfixerking

yea that neck of the woods alright.

Tackleberrywho

steelfixerking wrote: »

yea that neck of the woods alright.

The main herds of wild Sika deer are concentrated in Kerry, Wicklow,Tyrone and Fermanagh with some establishing herds in Dublin, Kildare, Carlow, Cork and Donegal.

There are approximately 20,000 Sika and their hybrids in Ireland. It is easiest to see Sika deer when they are actively grazing, mainly at dawn or dusk. Sika are extremely shy and one should take great care to approach carefully from downwind. Sika have a preference for acid soils and will quickly establish in young pine plantation. They are opportunistic and will colonise a variety of woodland habitats with grazing.

Identification

The antlers of the stag are branched and can have up to four pints on each. The rump has an almost concealed white patch with white surrounding hair. When alarmed the white rump patch is magnified and exposed, which is distinctively heart shaped. Coat coloration gets progressively lighter from the ridge of the back to the underbelly. The lighter browns of summer change to grey browns and almost black in Winter.

Sika are our smallest deer with stags up to 80cm at the shoulder and weighting 50-60kg. Adult females (hinds) are less than 70cm tall and weight 35kg

mallards

Tackleberrywho wrote: »

The antlers of the stag are branched and can have up to four pints on each.

I am so taking up deer hunting!:D

4gun

Tackleberrywho wrote: »

The antlers of the stag are branched and can have up to four pints on each.

Unfortunately they get spilled whin you shoot them

Tackleberrywho

I was Quoting Wild deer Ireland, should have reasd "POINTS" not "PINTS":p

Possible Sika in that region as it is very remote and not far from a herd as the crow flies

CJhaughey

steelfixerking wrote: »

so i got out with the pee shooter to have a look at what it was.

What exactly did you do to the deer to frighten it?:eek:

steelfixerking

all we done was whistled a few times, it was lying down having a break and it went back towards a bog when it got up.

pedroeibar1

Took these photos last March ; location is a back garden in Kerry. The stag challenged me when I went downstairs with camera, pawed the ground with his forefoot several times. They have moved up the mountain now, they have not been seen since.
P.

Deerhunter2

Tackleberrywho wrote: »

There are approximately 20,000 Sika and their hybrids in Ireland.

where did you come up with that figure? you could nearly multiply that by 10. an estimate from wicklow alone a few few years ago was 100,000 and growing by 7-10% per year. this was based on cull returns and various other bits of information by a kerry ranger who is an expert on Sika deer.

Tackleberrywho

Deerhunter2 wrote: »

Where did you come up with that figure? You could nearly multiply that by 10. An estimate from Wicklow a few few years ago was 100,000 and growing by 7-10% per year. This was based on cull returns and various other bits of information by a Kerry Ranger who is an expert on Sika deer.

http://www.wilddeerireland.com/sika.html

As I have never counted them i took their word on that score.

Deerhunter2

did you look at the cull return form on there? it's for 2008-2009, its very interesting.
it would also appear that the only county in Ireland that doesn't have sika is louth. and hybrids have spread from wicklow to every corner of ireland. Looks like alot of lads don't know how to identify their deer.
there was 12550 sika/hybrids shot in wicklow alone. i wonder how many you would need to add to that to get the real figure? it's believed that hunters are currently only shooting about 10% of the population in a year . so a conservative figure for wicklow would be 125,500. more realistically it is probably 150,000. and that the population grows by about 20% a year if left unchecked, looks like there's trouble ahead, the population is growing by about 10% a year, if this keeps going something will have to be done to control the growth an spread, we need to shoot twice as many deer as we are shooting, maybe we will all get paid to shoot deer instead.

landkeeper

maybe it's lads filling in the return where they are living rather than where the deer were shot , just a thought

Tackleberrywho

landkeeper wrote: »

maybe it's lads filling in the return where they are living rather than where the deer were shot , just a thought

Or not returning accurate figures!:eek:

Deerhunter2

landkeeper wrote: »

maybe it's lads filling in the return where they are living rather than where the deer were shot , just a thought

its possible, but its kind of obvious on the form what information is required. seriously, i know lots of lads thet think black fallow or a fallow thats a different color to what they normally see is a sika.

Tackleberrywho wrote: »

Or not returning accurate figures!:eek:

thats a given tack, some lads put down one or two deer when they've shot nothing because they are afraid they won't get the licence:rolleyes: and other lads shoot hundreds illegally and flog them through dodgy game dealers but only return a few animals:eek:
either way no matter what method is used to establish populations none is going to be totally accurate but it gives a good averge +/- a few.

poulo6.5

Deerhunter2 wrote: »

its possible, but its kind of obvious on the form what information is required. seriously, i know lots of lads thet think black fallow or a fallow thats a different color to what they normally see is a sika.


thats a given tack, some lads put down one or two deer when they've shot nothing because they are afraid they won't get the licence:rolleyes: and other lads shoot hundreds illegally and flog them through dodgy game dealers but only return a few animals:eek:
either way no matter what method is used to establish populations none is going to be totally accurate but it gives a good averge +/- a few.

On returns I shot 30 deer last year but I forgot to fill it in when sending back my renual so you can add 30 to the total. I'm sure I'm not the NLT one that forgot to fill in that part so I'm guessing that a lot more could be added to it. Not to mention road kills and poaching

Deerhunter2

poulo6.5 wrote: »

On returns I shot 30 deer last year but I forgot to fill it in when sending back my renual so you can add 30 to the total. I'm sure I'm not the NLT one that forgot to fill in that part so I'm guessing that a lot more could be added to it. Not to mention road kills and poaching

i agree, a lot more deer are killed than is reported, but the population is still growing and expanding its range, this only means we have a lot more deer than anybody would believe. i see a lot more deer than i saw 10 years ago, i cant imagine how many there will be in 10 years at this rate.

Birdnuts

Deerhunter2 wrote: »

, but the population is still growing and expanding its range, this only means we have a lot more deer than anybody would believe. i see a lot more deer than i saw 10 years ago, i cant imagine how many there will be in 10 years at this rate.

This is what happens when all natural predators are eliminated - yet another pressure on our already degraded natural woodlands:(, no wonder Scotland are thinking of bringing back wolves given the increasing threat to their few remaining native Scots Pine stands from ever increasing herds of Reds/Sitka.

steelfixerking

it is unreal the way they spread five years ago i would have had to drive thirty mile to see a deer now i can go to six different spots beside me and see them, don't know where they will be next.there isn't enough control kept on them i think. i see them as pests around us anyways.

marlin vs

CJhaughey wrote: »

What exactly did you do to the deer to frighten it?:eek:

He said BOOO!