Merry month of May is big for roe deer
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You can also log on to our website at www.stirling observer.co.uk and send your picture using the“send your pics”link. began a programme of woodland planting. These new forests proved ideal for roe and their numbers immediately began to recover until almost a hundred years on, they have reportedly reached those socalled plague proportions.
Roe deer are not large animals, an individual standing little more than two feet high at the shoulder. They are wonderfully athletic, capable of clearing quite high fences, fleet of foot and extremely alert. Our sightings of roe often amount to little more than fleeting glimpses of fast retreating, bobbing white posteriors. But, roe deer are unquestionably extremely attractive animals, often referred to as ‘the gentle roe’. And May is of course, a big month for them. Most roe deer kids come into the world during this ‘merry month’. And roe deer kids – they usually come in twos – are the absolute epitome of ‘Bambi’, tiny, spotted and well, simply adorable.
However, be warned; should you stumble across one during a woodland walk, please do not touch it! Your scent upon that tiny creature may cause it to be abandoned and thus, condemned to an early death.
But there is another side to the ‘gentle roe’ for during May the buck displays hardly any awareness, let alone a sense of care or responsibility towards his newly born progeny. Instead, he is fast becoming the very antithesis of gentle for the sap is rising within his veins as he seeks to establish or re-establish his territory and prepares, if necessary, to do battle.
I came across one such buck a day or two ago. His quite recently ‘cleaned’ antlers fairly gleamed in the sun as he quite deliberately, if from a respectable distance, investigated my presence. No bobbing white posterior here
Please make sure that when your are sending your images you include your name, address and contact details and a little piece of information about your picture. … at least till he was satisfied that I posed no problem to his territorial integrity. Foresters get quite peeved with roebuck because they can do serious damage to trees at this time of the year as they thrash them with their antlers to leave their mark for other bucks to see and smell. “This is my patch, Regular contribtor Dave MacDonald from Callander sent this picture of Loch Katrine with the Arrochar Alps in the background invade at your own risk!” is the message conveyed.
As one who has had the privilege of rearing a roe kid, I have always been thankful she was a doe for I have heard disturbing tales of hand reared roebuck, when the sap has risen in May, turning on their carers with a vengeance!