Hi folks, I'm kinda new here, so apologies is this is the wrong place for this query, but I have a couple of questions regarding the management of the free ranging deer (i.e. Chinese water deer and muntjac) at Whipsnade and I'm wondering if anyone on here can point me in the right direction. 1. I'm curious to know whether keepers have an 'ideal population size' for the free ranging muntjac and Chinese water deer on site. I know numbers can fluctuate quite considerably (based on census counts) across years, but I'm curious whether the keepers aim to try and keep the populations of both within certain limits? If so, this presumably requires culling when numbers get too high and bringing animals into the collection from outside when numbers fall short. 2. Are censuses usually published with the ZSL's annual report? I have spreadsheet copies of 2012-2015, but I'm interested in the muntjac and CWD numbers further back and wondering whether a trip to the ZSL library to search through the back issues of the annual report might be the way to go? Thanks in advance for any info. Cheers, Marc.
A detailed animal inventory is, sadly, no longer supplied in the ZSL Annual Report but the latest animal inventory is provided on the ZSL website. As you will know from your spreadsheet copies, the most recent edition shows 88 Chinese water deer and 7 Reeves' muntjac as at 1st January 2015. (This compares with 110 Chinese water deer and 14 muntjac the previous year.) Earlier editions of the ZSL Annual Report (from 1977 onwards) used to provide a more detailed animal inventory giving details of births, deaths etc and I find it frustrating that this information is no longer available. A visit to the ZSL Library would enable you to get full details of the numbers of these two deer species from these publications. Alternatively, if you wish, I will be able to e-mail you with details from my own collection of back copies of the Annual Report.
Thanks very much for that Tim. I have just sent you a PM about the info from your back issues. Cheers, Marc.
You're welcome; it will take a while to collate the information from many annual reports but I will send it to you asap.
