Muntjac stalking in Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire offers some of the best muntjac stalking in the UK. Hunting this deer is an obsession for some. Roy Lupton takes his rifle to see what all the fuss is about.
To go stalking with Mike and Barry, visit www.muntjacstalkinguk.com
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Why shoot deer?
There are more than two million red, roe, fallow, sika, muntjac and Chinese water deer in Britain’s countryside and semi-urban areas, the highest level for 1,000 years. Numbers have doubled since 1999, according to the Deer Initiative, the UK government’s deer agency.
Deer are an attractive and an important part of our wildlife. However, they have no natural predator in the UK so numbers must be sensibly and strategically managed to keep them in balance with their habitat and to prevent damage to crops, trees, woodland flora, gardens and other wildlife.
Deer cause £4.5 million-worth (Forestry Commission Scotland) of damage to plantations and other commercial woodlands in Scotland. Crop damage is estimated at £4.3m a year according to DEFRA, with the greatest damage on cereal crops in east and south-west England.
More than 8,000 hectares (Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology) of woodland with SSI status is currently in ‘unfavourable’ or ‘recovering’ condition due to deer impacts such as browsing and fraying. Deer can also influence the variety of wildlife in woodlands and other habitats by altering structural and plant species diversity. According to the University of East Anglia’s Dr Paul Dolman, that has resulted in a 50% decline in woodland bird numbers where deer are present, impacting particularly on nightingales, blackcaps, chiffchaffs and warblers.
Deer are susceptible to Bovine TB and may be responsible for the transmission of TB to cattle. They are also the likely driver behind the UK’s increasing tick population (Scharlemann et al 2008).
Happily, venison is a delicious meat. It is wild, natural and free range, and - almost fat-free - it is one of the healthiest meats available today. Results from research commissioned by the Game-to-Eat campaign (Leatherhead Food International Research 2006) suggest that there are real health benefits to eating game. Venison is high in protein, low in saturated fatty acids and contains higher levels of iron than any other red meat.

[@regsparkes6507]

Great videography and subject matter too. I appreciated seeing these Muntjac up close. I've never seen these little animals before.

[@Retrieverman1]

Very nice video. They aren't musk deer though. Musk deer (Moschidae) are in a different family from the true deer (Cervidae). Muntjac are primitive deer in the Cervinae subfamily (which includes fallow, sika, and red deer), which is why they still have tusks. The Chinese water deer are also primitive deer but in the subfamily Capreolinae (which includes both species of roe deer, white-tailed deer, and moose). Deer are unique in that canine teeth still appear on some of the derived deer in both subfamilies. North American elk/wapiti have canines that are celebrated as "ivory," and every once in a while, a white-tail is killed that has vestigial canines.

[@handle11141]

it is interesting that in the uk there is no public hunting lands, which would be a forest or a jungle. i would kill to come and hunt there without any game wardens either.