BVN February 2022

Death on the road
David Tomlinson
It’s a curious fact that there are certainly more deer in Britain today than there
have been since the Middle Ages. Here on the Norfolk/Suffolk border we have
three principal species: our native roe and red deer, along with a large and
expanding population of introduced muntjac, a native of south-east Asia. In
addition, Chinese water deer are appearing with increasing frequency, while
fallow deer are numerous just a few miles to the south and west of us. What
we don’t have is any large predators to control their growing numbers, so the
biggest cause of deer mortality is almost certainly death on the road.
Mid-winter is one of the peak times for deer collisions, a fact that I have been
reminded of recently, having seen a considerable number of dead deer in the
last couple of months. I suspect that relatively few drivers stop after hitting a
deer: most drive on, leaving the unfortunate animal where it was hit, which is
often in the middle of the road. Since Christmas I’ve come across the
aftermath of two such collisions on a lane close to home. The first was a
muntjac buck, mortally wounded but still alive, and right in the middle of the
road. The second was a roe deer doe, dead, but also stretched out across the
road. I presumed that the collision had happened minutes before, as it was
difficult to drive around the animal.
The injured but stricken muntjac was a challenge - what should I do with it?
The British Deer Society (BDS) recommends calling the police, who will know
of stalkers who can be called out to dispatch a wounded beast. The drawback
to this is that the injured animal may well continue to suffer for a considerable
time until anyone can attend to it. Fortunately I had a knife in the car, so I
killed the deer as quickly and efficiently as I could and dragged the body off
the road. Muntjac are small deer, but they can be dangerous when injured.
This particular animal was so badly crippled that it couldn’t move, so I wasn’t
under any risk.
The roe doe was easier to deal with. I stopped the car with hazard flashers on
and pulled the carcase well off the road. No cars passed while I was doing
this. Though roe are small deer, they are still surprisingly heavy. A typical
mature doe weighs around 23kg, compared with around 13kg for a female
muntjac. Muntjac bucks may go up to 17kg. These weights are tiny compared
with fallow and red deer. A mature fallow buck will tip the scales at around
70kg, a red deer stag at over 200kg.
According to the BDS, it’s estimated that there between 40,000 and 74,000
deer are hit by vehicles on the road every year. My guess is that the latter
figure is much closer to the mark, as relatively few such incidents are reported.
The cost to insurers is considerable and growing. Two years ago a friend,
driving her new Audi A4, hit a fallow buck at Elveden on the A11, just south of
Thetford. The collision caused four more cars to crash. All were relatively new
vehicles (less than two years old), and all were written off. Fortunately no one
was seriously hurt, but it was a sharp reminder of the financial implications of
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