The wild Reeves’s Muntjac : Wildlife in N21

When my family come to London to stay, they are always amazed by the amount and variety of the wildlife in the area. In fact they often see more wild animals here in N21 than they do in their own rural environments. I suppose it must be the fact that with the incessant noise and hubbub of the city, animals get used to being round us humans and are therefore less frightened by us.

Even so, I did have to do a double-take and rub my eyes last week when I looked out into a garden in Grange Park and saw what I thought was a baby deer! I could not believe my eyes – a baby deer in Grange Park, surely not? I watched as it wandered around on the lawn and then casually slipped into a neighbour’s garden and disappeared.

I called to the house owner, who was not at all phased by my revelation, much to my surprise. “But there was a baby deer in your garden!” I cried. “Have you ever seen one before?” I asked. Apparently she hadn’t but from her total lack of reaction I don’t think she quite believed me!

Well I never!

We are used to the N21 of today, but it wasn’t always like this. In Henrietta Cresswell’s Book Winchmore Hill: Memories of a lost village, about Winchmore Hill in the late 1800’s, she refers to the streams and brooks that zigzagged the area.

Salmons Brook, Houndsden Gutter and the New River are of course still here and weave their way around N21, under the roads and streets, popping up occasionally to remind us that the area was once beautiful countryside.

These waterways stretch out into the countryside of Hertfordshire and like the railway line, act as a wildlife artery into the heart of the city. These channels into the city are usually quite quiet and away from people and this is how the baby deer would have come to be in a Grange Park garden.

After a little research it turns out what I saw was a Reeves’s Muntjac (Wikipedia entry here). Apparently the wild Reeves’s Muntjac we see today are descendents of animals which originally escaped from either the grounds of Woburn Abbey or Whipsnade Zoo.

Luckily for me I managed to capture on film two Reeves’s Muntjacs casually crossing the railway line at the end of the Grange Park platform this week.  Here they are..

So I am not going mad after all.

Now I thought these were very rare sightings and quite unusual, but again, after further enquiries I realised that the Reeves’s Muntjac is all part and parcel of everyday N21 life (well maybe not everyday – I suppose they are quite shy creatures !)

The article below from the local paper in 1986 tells the tale of the Reeves’s Muntjac that got caught in some railings in a Winchmore Hill Garden way back then. Doug Elliott, the gentleman whose garden the adventure happened in, has kindly provided the article.

So maybe there are a lot more of them out there and I’m the only one that’s never seen one before !
If you have any stories or pictures about the N21 Reeves’s Muntjac, email us and we’ll publish your article and pictures on the site.