Ungulates (Deer, boar etc)

The wild boar is one of Britain’s largest mammals and has a formidable appearance. From a large head and muscular neck and shoulders, the body slopes down the back to the rump and a long-haired tail. The snout is long and narrow, ending in a cartilaginous disc; the ears are small and always erect. From the age of two, adult males have well-developed tusks that grow continuously. The lower tusks have a sharp cutting edge and are repeatedly sharpened by rubbing against the upper tusks, which are hollow and act as a permanent whetstone. Females (sows) are similar but have less heavy front quarters and no tusks. The coat in both sexes is shaggy and brindled, the guard hairs having lighter coloured tips. There is an underlying thick woolly pelage of light brown hair, and a mane of longer bristles running the length of the spine. Coat colour ranges from light fawn to black and adults moult annually in June to August.  

16 A fully-grown muntjac has a red-brown summer pelage with a buff-coloured underside and variable amounts of white on the chin and inside of the thighs. The tail is a rich red or chestnut colour with white on the underside. The winter coat is much greyer and almost black on the underside, and males at maturity have a near V-shaped black stripe up the pedicles (antler attachment points) and frontal region of the head.

Males (bucks) acquire simple unbranched antlers at between five and 20 weeks old and these continue to develop as the buck ages, eventually forming small brow tines. Bucks shed and regrow their antlers each year. Muntjac have a distinctive dog-like barking call and lift their large tail when running away, revealing a white underside. They are usually solitary and may live for 14 years in the wild.

Muntjac is the smallest British deer species, and cannot easily be confused with other species except the Chinese water deer which has not occurred in Kent to date.  

Sika along with red deer are the largest deer in the UK and are often confused with each other, since they are very similar in size and colouration. Especially in summer, red deer have no spots on their backs, which is unlike all other British deer including sika. Both red and sika deer have branched antlers; sika deer usually have a maximum of eight points and red deer up to 16 points. In red deer the angle between the brow tine (first point) and the main beam (main shaft of the antler) is always more than 90º. The tail of a sika deer is white with a dark stripe, compared with plain yellow-brown in the red deer.

Adult fallow deer usually exhibit one of four main colour variations - common, menil, black and white. The common colour is a tan brown with spots on the flanks which fade in winter, and a white rump with a diagnostic black stripe down the tail and the sides of the rump. Menil is paler with spots all year round, but no black rump outline. Black forms are almost completely black, with no white. White forms are not albino but white or sandy-coloured.

Males (bucks) develop simple unbranched antlers at about six months of age, but size and complexity of antlers varies with age, genetics and overall health. This is the only British species of deer to have palmate antlers.

A fully-grown roe deer has a uniform red/brown summer pelage with a distinctive whitish, inverted heart-shaped patch on the rump, which is more obvious in females in winter. The rump patch in males is cream rather than white and more kidneyshaped. Roe deer (bucks) have relatively short antlers which are cast in October to December each year. Males (bucks) develop their first simple button antlers at about 12 to 16 weeks of age, with the first true antlers subsequently forming as simple spikes.