Tracing Ireland’s red deer

I stalk deer in Ireland on both sides of the border, and have done so for many years. A friend recently forwarded to me a social media post that referred to a record Irish red deer that was classed as Cervus elaphus hibernicus. Surely this is not correct? I thought that there were only two types of red deer in Ireland. Is this the case, and if not when did this third one get identified?

As far as red deer go there are two subspecies found in Britain and Ireland: Cervus elaphus scoticus, the native animal, and Cervus elaphus hippelaphus. There is no subspecies of Cervus elaphus classified as hibernicus. The red deer found in Ireland seem to have caused some head-scratching in the past regarding their origins, and various cases have been put forward as to where they have come from. The descendants of “native” animals are most likely to be scoticus, while those animals that have been introduced will most likely have the majority of their genes from hippelaphus.

Many of the trophies exhibited are on the large size in terms of both weight and conformation, so leaning heavily towards the hippelaphus or park stock end of the spectrum. As far as Irish stock goes there is also the issue of hybridisation between red deer and introduced sika in some parts of the country. IW

As in Britain, there are two types of red deer in Ireland, the “Cervus elaphus scoticus” and “hippelaphus”