Deer of Great Britain

Six species of deer are living wild in Great Britain:^[1] Scottish red deer, roe deer, fallow deer, sika deer, Reeves's muntjac, and Chinese water deer.^[2] Of those, Scottish red and roe deer are native and have lived in the isles throughout the Holocene. Fallow deer have been reintroduced twice, by the Romans and the Normans, after dying out in the last ice age. The other three are escaped or released alien species. Moose were also formerly native to Britain, before dying out during the mid-Holocene, over 5,000 years ago.^[3] The comparably sized Irish elk, which had the largest antlers of any deer was formerly also native to Britain, until becoming regionally extinct some 12,000 years ago.^[4]

Native

• Scottish red deer - (subspecies)
• Roe deer

Introduced

• Fallow deer (was previously native to Britain during the Pleistocene^[5])
• Sika deer
• Reeves's muntjac
• Water deer

Reintroduced

• Elk/moose - (on private reserves)
• Reindeer - (on private reserves)

Extinct

• Irish elk

Gallery

• 
  Scottish red deer (subspecies)
• 
  Roe deer
• 
  Fallow deer
• 
  Reeves's muntjac
• 
  Sika deer
• 
  Chinese water deer
• 
  Reindeer
• 
  Elk (Moose)
• 
  Irish elk (extinct)

References

1. Walker, M.D. Distribution of British Deer. British Naturalist.
2. "The Deer Initiative — Species". Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
3. Schmölcke, U.; Zachos, F.E. (November 2005). "Holocene distribution and extinction of the moose (Alces alces, Cervidae) in Central Europe". Mammalian Biology. 70 (6): 329–344. doi:10.1016/j.mambio.2005.08.001.
4. Lister, Adrian M.; Stuart, Anthony J. (January 2019). "The extinction of the giant deer Megaloceros giganteus (Blumenbach): New radiocarbon evidence". Quaternary International. 500: 185–203. Bibcode:2019QuInt.500..185L. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2019.03.025.
5. Baker, K. H.; Gray, H. W. I.; Lister, A. M.; Spassov, N.; Welch, A. J.; Trantalidou, K.; De Cupere, B.; Bonillas, E.; De Jong, M.; Çakırlar, C.; Sykes, N.; Hoelzel, A. R. (2024-02-12). "Ancient and modern DNA track temporal and spatial population dynamics in the European fallow deer since the Eemian interglacial". Scientific Reports. 14 (1). doi:10.1038/s41598-023-48112-6. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 10861457. PMID 38346983.