Everywhere in England is unlike everywhere else. That’s a gift in part from our absurdly complicated geology, crafted further by six millennia of rural activity. But even in a land of difference, the East Anglian peninsula stands out: sprawling, soaked, sandy and spacious.
Its heart is routinely under water. East of Norwich, a spider’s web of rivers and channels wind through reedbeds – windmills started turning there when Henry III was on the throne, but alder and willow have had wet feet for longer, and it is in their company that you might spot something very odd. Who left these lethal daggers in the marsh?
Or tusks, technically. Their owner is not a big cat, although it’s easy to imagine hikers stumbling across one of these monstrous canines and fearing that Norfolk is home to a relic population of cave lions. They actually belong to a rather cuddly-looking deer.
Water deer are England’s mystery mammals. Few people have heard of them, and they’re not easy to approach.
This is a heavy crop, but you can just see the tusks.
They have humans in their history. We only have two surviving native deer – the red and the roe. Water deer hail from China and Korea, but have been present in the UK for a century or so. While releasing non-native species into a different ecosystem half way across the globe is generally a very bad idea, not so in this case. Water deer are now vulnerable in their homeland, so the British population is important to their survival. Unlike introduced sika deer, they do not cause any ecological problems in the UK.
And they keep wading through the reedbeds, learning the marshes, watching their neighbours go about their own business.
And the skies keep tripping over themselves.
A Walk with Wildlife 
What a beautiful place that is! Great post, Adele.
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The Broads are one of our most famous wildlife areas for good reason, but their beauty and atmosphere are unique too. And the weather. The good thing is that that the skies are so big that at least you have a bit of warning before the rain rolls in!
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Interesting post, Adele. Wonderful landscape photos too.
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Thanks Belinda. It was nice to get out into the Yare Valley. Most of this area has protected status of one type or another.
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Adele, great post! I have heard of the Water Deer before but didn’t know there were any in the UK.
Your images are smashing!
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I think most British people don’t know that they’re here! They’re only found in marshy regions in the east, and are quite good at hiding themselves in the tall reeds.
Thanks! Hope all’s well with you and yours.
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I think I remember you mentioned water deer once before – back in Opera Community times.
Nice photographs!!!
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I still miss Opera 😦 Yes, I did do a post on that tusk when I was first given it. It seems strange that it’s so many years later that I’ve finally got a photo of a water deer itself.
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Such an interesting post and your photos are lovely. I didn’t know there were water deer in the UK.
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Thanks Lynette. We have six deer species here, only two of which are native, although one of the introduced ones has been here for centuries.
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Lovely post, Adele. Are these deer related to munjac that I’ve read about, also from Asia?
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Water deer do resemble muntjac, but are considered unique enough to be in a family all their own. Muntjac were also introduced to the eastern UK and unlike water deer, have spread widely and become very common. They’re hardly bigger than border collies and make strange barks at night.
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We`ve been there in the 70ies and 80ies, but didn`t meet any water deer. Thank you!
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Hope you enjoyed your travels 🙂 It is an amazing area to explore even when the water deer are hiding.
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Indeed they are cuddly looking deer – and the tusks are surprising, all the better to chomp on reeds and the like? What an interesting network of ancient wetlands it must be. Your photos are great, and I particularly like the photo of the heron.
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They use their tusks like other deer use antlers – namely for battling over the females! I was given the one in the photo by a warden some years ago and it’s always fun to show it to people when I’m giving mammal talks.
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Oh that is interesting that the tusks have nothing to do with feeding!
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Considering their difficulty to approach and apparent mysterious nature you’ve done well with these shots, Adele. With those tusks they look a bit vampirish. 🙂 They also remind me of an experience in my young life. As a child I sucked two of my fingers rather than my thumb and that caused my lower jaw to project. A dentist fashioned a couple of chrome plated tooth extensions or fangs for my two front teeth which, of course, projected down upon my lip and chin much like these deer. Eventually my folks abandoned the project for fear of my losing my permanent teeth permanently. Underbiters unite!!! 🙂 The one you are holding does look like a saber tooth’s fang.
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Wow, that is a unique memory!
They do look rather vampirish, and it’s always fun to show the tusk to people. We did have one sabre-tooth felid in Britain back in the day, or to be more precise the scimitar-toothed cat Homotherium. I wonder how it would have reacted to meeting a deer with fangs of its own!
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Some really lovely images, here, Adele. And interesting text. Thank you.
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Thank you Stuart. It’s a very special part of the world.
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