Roe Deer: Following Their Secret Lives through the Seasons 🦌

With their elegant nature, roe deer are my favourite of the six species that live in Britain. But they can be secretive and it's hard to see them up close. So last winter I started to look for signs of them up at Ashwood. And what I found here is roe deer fur and I can tell it's roe deer fur because when you pull it apart it actually snaps really easily and this roe deer is actually catching its back every time it passes through here and leaving a little bit of fur so this is going to be a great place to put the camera. I have seen that there are deer nearby so hopefully I'll capture these small delicate deer wandering through. It's now spring and the roe deer start to visit this wood more often. There's plenty of places for them to shelter and lush vegetation for them to eat. Roe deer are known as browsers because they nibble on anything from leaves and grasses to tree shoots and even bark. But there's a problem with this plant-based diet as they need calcium, sodium and phosphorus to keep healthy and strong, especially if they're going to grow big antlers. Deer get some minerals from plants, water and soil but for good antler development they need plenty of them. So I've made some homemade salt licks to see if I can attract them in. So this is just an old water bottle and I've converted it so it takes rainwater. So rainwater just goes in the top and then a salty solution dribbles down this stick. So any roe deer passing by won't be able to resist stopping and investigating this stick. The deer already naturally pass through here but I'm just hoping to stop them a little longer with this salt lick. Fingers crossed it works and I'll be keeping a close eye on the cameras. So I'm just reviewing the footage at Ashwood now looking for the roe deer. Oh this is absolutely fabulous, we've got a roe doe coming through and she's just heading out of shot but then she smells something, I think she smelt the salt on the stick and she's coming to investigate. Absolutely great. She's currently a malt. This happens every year so she's going to have a fresh coat for this year's breeding season. By summer not only do they have their new fur they can't get enough of their salt licks too. So this buck is really tucking in and look at that, that's one of this year's fawns. This male is scratching and rubbing his antlers against the stick to mark his territory and this is really common during the breeding season. And it's great to see three deer passing through at once. I'm not just seeing them at dawn and dusk, they wander through at night as well. Seeing these lovely deer mammoths makes the work over winter so much more worthwhile. It's been incredible watching the deer over the course of the year at Ashwood and knowing I've given them a helping hand is even better. Thank you for watching and I hope you enjoyed the video. Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe to see more. Here's a taste of what you'll enjoy seeing on this channel. you