Irish deer are particularly beautiful and there are four species of deer altogether in Ireland.
These are the Fallow, Sika, and Muntjac and the Red deer. You can read about them here.
Unfortunately, there is only one of these species to be found in Ballyyahoo today and that is the Fallow deer you can see in the picture above.
FALLOW DEER
Fallow deer are the most widespread Irish deer throughout the country.
Here, the fallow represent about 41% of the total Irish deer population.
A few of them live in Ballyyahoo.
The fallow deer are much smaller than the red deer and the adult males (bucks) weigh about 55 kg and the female (Doe) about 40-45 kg.
THE FAWN
The baby deer are called fawn.
Can you see a fawn peeping out between its parents in the above picture?
Irish deer have wonderful colourful coats and these vary between black, white and brown.
The ‘Common Callow’ is light brown with white spots in summer time.
In Winter this changes and their coats can darken and turn grey.
WHERE CAN YOU FIND IRISH DEER?
As you can see in the above photograph their eyes and noses are shiny and bright.
They are often seen grazing in quiet places in Ballyyahoo, like the hills and in the Witchy woods.
They love to graze on leaves, herbs, acorns and sometimes even farm crops – if they can get at them.
But in Ballyyahoo people are careful to keep fences around the farmlands and gardens.
DEER IN BALLYYAHOO
Ballyyahooians don’t want the deer to get in and eat all their vegetables.
You see there is no supermarket in Ballyyahoo and so Ballyyahooians have to grow their own.
Not that they mind. They love growing their own vegetables.
They would be quick to tell you that home grown vegetables and fruit taste better than anything you can buy.
Lucy loves to see the deer. They sometimes come quite close to the fence and she often stops to talk to them on her way home from school.
The fawn you see in the picture below is one of the ones she passes every day. You can read more about Lucy’s adventures here.
WHY DO DEER STARE?
She has noticed the way some of the deer seem to stare at her while she in turns stares at them.
When deer stare they are noticing everything about you and worrying in case you are a predator.
Lucy imagines that the deer see a lot of the goings on in Ballyyahoo and sometimes wishes they could talk.
If they did, Lucy is sure they’d have a lot to say.
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