Deer Bytes - monthly email update

Waitrose in Salisbury has nominated the British Deer Society as one of three charities to benefit under the "Community Matters" programme. During January each shopper is asked to drop a token into one of three collecting bins representing each charity. At the end of the month £1000 is distributed between the charities on a proportional basis depending on the number of tokens received. British Deer Society Spokesman David Kenyon said: "Waitrose has long supported sales of venison and game meat but this is a new departure for the company. If you are in the Salisbury area in January do drop in to Waitrose and then drop in your token to support the society".

The funds raised from Waitrose will be used to support the Deer Vehicle Collisions campaign "Look out for Deer".

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2. STARVATION 'WIPED OUT' GIANT DEER

By Matt Walker Editor, Earth News

The giant deer, also known as the giant Irish deer or Irish elk, is one of the largest deer species that ever lived. Yet why this giant animal, which had massive antlers spanning 3.6m, suddenly became extinct some 10,600 years ago has remained a mystery.

Now a study of its teeth is producing tantalising answers, suggesting the deer couldn't cope with climate change. As conditions became colder and drier in Ireland at the time, fewer plants grew, gradually starving the deer.

The discovery is published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.

The giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus) has become famous over the past few centuries. In the early 1800s, discoveries of its remains opened up the debate about whether animal species had previously become extinct, and whether new life-forms could be discovered in the fossil record.

Around this time, conflicting ideas as to why the animal went extinct began to emerge. Initial ideas ranged from the Biblical flood described by Genesis, to the idea that humans had wiped them out.

However, the archaeological record suggests that people did not arrive in Ireland until after the last Ice Age, after most giant deer had disappeared.

There is also little evidence that the deer had any predators in Ireland.

A popular idea that also emerged was that the deer's huge antlers, spanning up to 3.6m, grew disproportionately large due to sexual selection.

Females became attracted to and mated with males with ever larger antlers, according to the idea, and eventually the antlers became so unwieldy that the deer became mired in clay soils, where they perished.

"Yet this is too simplistic an answer for why such a massive population of apparently thriving organisms could go extinct suddenly," says Ms Kendra Chritz, who conducted the study at the University College (UCD), Dublin, Ireland and the National Museum of Ireland while studying for an undergraduate degree at the University of Portland, in Oregon, US.

Supervised by Dr Julia Sigwart of Queen's University, Belfast and Dr Gareth Dyke of UCD, Ms Chritz and colleagues analysed the tooth enamel of seven fossilised male giant deer.

By studying levels of carbon and oxygen isotopes, and levels of cementum, a material that cements each tooth crown to the gums, the researchers could uncover the time of year each deer was born, their diet and how their lives and behaviour may have changed each year.

The ratios of isotopes revealed that the ecosystem in which the deer lived became stressed by drought. As a result it changed from being covered in forest to being more open and tundra-like.

"There's an overall trend of general vegetation decline," says Ms Chritz.

The deer also appeared to be born in spring or early summer. But at the time of their extinction, temperatures dropped.

"Giant deer would probably have had a hard time coping with cooler mean annual temperature and a shortened growing season," says Ms Chritz.

That would be particularly bad news for young deer. Most young animals are born in spring precisely because temperatures are warmer and there is more food available.

"It would be very difficult for young deer to cope with all these changes brought on by the Ice Age, as well as support the energetic demands of their growing bodies," concludes Ms Chritz, who is now studying for her PhD in palaeoecology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, US.

Data from the cementum, which grows each year much like tree rings, indicates that the deer lived from 6.5 to 14 years old, and they possessed mature antlers by autumn, similar to other living deer species.

Though often called the Irish elk, Megaloceros giganteus is actually a deer species.

Though most abundant in Ireland, it was not confined to the island, with populations living across Europe and Western Asia from 400,000 to 10,600 years ago.

The last Ice Age stretched from 100,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago, containing periods of greater and lesser glaciation.

The deer rapidly disappeared across most of the range at the end of the last glacial transition, though giant deer remains have been uncovered in Siberia that date to around 7,000 years before present.

"That means that mainland giant deer had some sort of refugia from the Ice Age before they met their ultimate extinction; they were able to move to a better environment and survive later," says Ms Chritz.

But those giant deer in Ireland "had the misfortune to be trapped on an island with nowhere to go."

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3. TEENAGERS GUILTY OF DEER STAMPING DEATH

Two 17-year-old boys have been found guilty of killing a two-day-old deer in a Dorset park by stamping on it. Three boys, two aged 17 and one 16, were accused of intentionally killing the deer while on land without consent after the attack on 10 June.

The 17-year-olds were cleared of beating a wild mammal with intent to inflict unnecessary suffering. They will be sentenced in January. The 16-year-old was cleared of both charges at Poole Youth Court.

During their trial, one of the 17-year-olds told the court he gave the fawn a karate chop to its head in Upton Country Park. But the court was told the trio only decided to kill the deer because it appeared to have a broken leg.

The court heard that the youngest defendant told police he only nudged the fawn once with his foot and did not laugh like the others.

A post-mortem examination showed the deer suffered several skull fractures, a severed spine and a fractured right leg.

The teenagers, from Poole, were arrested on 15 June after a police appeal attracted international interest and officers were tipped-off with their names.

Prosecutors said that one boy swung the deer by one of its legs and another karate chopped its head before all three "stomped" it to death. The court was told one of the 17-year-olds had said they should break one of the deer's legs "for a laugh".

Paul Griffin, prosecuting, told the court: "The deer was moving, it was trying to escape. Then they all decided to kill it." He said one of the 17-year-olds had "accepted he had stomped on the fawn's ribs because he thought it would be fun".

Police were alerted to the incident by dog walker Keith Arthurs, 52, who witnessed the killing. The court heard he was so distressed by what he saw he no longer goes to the park.

District Judge Roger House told the two 17-year-olds that though this was a nasty case, it's not in the same league as people who cause deliberate suffering to animals. He told the youths they wouldn't be facing imprisonment, but a community sentence. They will be sentenced on 14 January 2010.

Rejecting calls from the media to name the youths, he said he had to weigh up what was in the public interest and what was good for them. It was said that one of the youths had had the graffiti "red rum", murder spelt backwards, written outside his home.

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4. NRA COMPETENCE REMINDER

A reminder that NRA competence certificates are valid only up to the end of December in the year that the certificate is issued.

Any BDS members wishing to renew their current 2009 certificate who haven't already done so, please forward a photocopy of the certificate, a self- addressed envelope and covering letter with your membership number to the Fordingbridge office.The renewal cost is £5.00 and cheques should be made payable to The British Deer Society.

For any queries contact the Training Department at ; phone 01425 655434

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5. DEER CRASH VICTIM NAMED

9:55am Wednesday 23rd December 2009 Basingstoke Gazette

Police have named the man who died in a road accident involving a deer.

Malcolm Nigel Brown, 32, of Anvil Way, Bramley, died after the white Vauxhall Astra van he was in was involved in a collision with a deer and a Vauxhall Corsa on the A339 at Herriard on Monday morning.

Sergeant Lyndon Barrett, of Whitchurch Roads Policing unit, said: "The Corsa was heading towards Alton when it collided with the deer on the road.

"As a result, the animal wa