Norfolk reeds wave in the cold winter wind. Dykes dissect grazing marshes, each filled with water. Splashes, half-frozen, are dotted like silver jewels among the green grass. Teal and snipe cluster around the edges, making the most of the afternoon feeding before another frosty night hardens the ground. Scanning the landscape through our binoculars, it only takes a moment before we spot a lump of hay-gold fur crouched down among some sedge grass tussocks. It is alert, looking straight at us with ears pricked. Surveying the flat landscape with scant cover, we analyse the chances of a successful approach: not good. This deer, far from its native Yangtze Delta, is safe.
The earliest record of Chinese water deer in Britain was a show of exotic deer held at London Zoo in 1873. History doesn’t relate whether this peculiar-looking cervid, with savage fangs juxtaposed against a teddy-bear face, bushy coat and furry ears, caused a Victorian sensation. Probably not, but it did win one admirer in Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of approach to fence maintenance, meant that before long there was a small but stable wild population. The same man was responsible for the introduction of both grey squirrels and muntjac, as well as sending the Himalayan tahr to New Zealand that now roam the mountains of the South Island.
