Roe deer became a regular sight in Sefton almost 20 years ago, and numbers have risen steadily ever since
A pair of roe deer have been spotted frolicking on Crosby beach. The deer were caught on video running along the sand, between the half-buried human sculptures of Anthony Gormley’s Another Place.
The video was taken by Crosby resident Joe Walsh, 39, who spotted the deer on his morning walk at around 6.30am today. He said: “I’ve lived in this area all my life and I’ve never seen the deer on the beach before.
“I was just out walking with the baby, giving my wife some peace when I saw them. We usually get out early at the weekend and with it being a nice day I left about six to go to the beach, and it was toward the coastguard end we saw them.
“You do sometimes see the deer near the West Lancashire Golf Club. There’s a little woodland area where they usually are. You never see them on the beach, at least I never have.
“They don’t really come out of their home area, especially into a really public area like the beach so I’m not sure what they were doing there. The tide was out and they were quite far out and it just looked like they were playing.”
Roe deer are Britain’s most common native deer, being widespread across most of the country. They are a medium-sized type of deer with short antlers and no tail, and can be easily identified by their distinctive white patch on their bottom.
Deer on Crosby beach(Image: Joe Walsh)
Roe deer became a regular sight in Sefton almost 20 years ago, and numbers have risen steadily ever since. Though they are naturally timid creatures, usually being concealed in woodland, they can sometimes be seen wandering out in the open when few people are around to disturb them.
Warning signs from Broom’s Cross Road to the Coast Road at Ainsdale alert motorists to the possibility of deer rushing out into the roads.
Sefton councillor Neil Doolin, in a message to Waterloo and Seaforth residents in May last year, said: “I’ve been contacted by several residents concerned about the welfare of Roe Deer seen along Crosby Coastal Park in recent months. I’ve liaised with Green Sefton; please see below information that I hope local residents will find useful and allay some concerns.
“Green Sefton’s view is that being wild animals, deer will only stay around if the environment is suitable for them. Being secretive and highly mobile they have been moving up and down the coast in greater numbers for some years now, with an established population across Merseyside.
“Residents have little need to worry about the general welfare of the deer at Crosby, they will tend to avoid people and dogs. Though of course, as with any wild animal, we would encourage people to view from afar, not to feed them and keep dogs under control in their vicinity.
“On the downside, as numbers grow, the risk of collisions on roads, damage to woodland and prevalence of ticks is also increasing but at the moment this is small scale compared to other parts of the country where deer populations are much bigger.
“And of course there will always be a small proportion of people who will deliberately try to harm these animals.”
The UK is home to six deer species, but only the roe and red deer are native. According to the Woodland Trust, by the 19th century, roe deer had disappeared from most of the UK, surviving only in Scotland and isolated pockets elsewhere. Reintroductions from Europe helped the species recover.
The absence of large carnivores in the UK means adult roe deer have no natural predators. Consequently, deer density can reach extremely high levels, with total deer numbers in the UK thought to be at a 1,000-year high.
This can result in overgrazing, affecting woodland structure and tree species composition. This has knock-on effects for other species of woodland flora and fauna, and so some deer populations are culled to control their spread and reduce habitat damage.