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Perhaps the most striking are the Red Deer. They are the largest
but are rarely seen. You might see them at Ashurst in the early
morning.
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deer is bottle fed by a New Forest Keeper |
Up to
800 deer are culled each year.
The cull is necessary because there is no natural predator to control
numbers.
Forest Keepers shoot them in order to control the size of the deer
population in the Forest.
The Keepers, however, often show their softer side and have been
known to hand rear foals which have lost their mothers.
Two foreign breeds were introduced during the nineteenth century.
Japanese Sika Deer, which live to the south of the railway line
are shy and tend to stay in woodland. Chinese Muntjac deer are present
in small numbers but they are small and difficult to see.
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