At LettsSafari’s Dawlish Park a multi-year rewilding project to return the black fallow deer started just a few years ago. Historically black fallow have been in the Haldon Hills on the southern edge of Exeter City, and a few miles from the edges of Dartmoor, for hundreds of years. But, thanks to logging, deforestation, increased human activity and increasingly intensive farming they have struggled. They used to roam freely throughout the Haldon range. A few years ago LettsSafari and Mamhead Park South began work to provide a wilder home for these magnificent herbivores.

Poaching, roadkill and dwindling natural vegetation has reduced the number of black fallow deer in the area. So, at LettsSafari’s Dawlish Park we set about giving them a new, natural oasis where they could find a safer future. Dalwish Park is not large enough to close them in so we created an environment that they could adopt as their base, while keeping the perimeter fencing low enough so they can comfortably jump in and out and travel more widely.

Just 7 years ago Dawlish Park was a mess. About a third of it was over-grazed, deeply damaged grassland alongside a young wooded area that had become a jungle, with an old forest nearby of largely deciduous trees. It took 4 years to restore and rewild the open pasture, turning it into wild grassland and wildflower meadows.

The jungle of invasive species strangling the young trees took years to clear by hand - so we could save as many of the young trees as possible. They were a special mix of deciduous trees. The dead trees were used for dead hedging and the stronger trees were restored back to health. They were thinned back into copses and spread out just enough so that wild grasses could be sown in between. Areas of open scrub were developed to include bracken, gorse and bramble running across new hedgerow structures.

Today Dawlish Park is one of the most advanced and exciting smaller-scale rewilding parks in the country. Visitors truly marvel at the experience. A western style safari park in miniature. This oasis for carbon capture, wildlife and mixed plant life is now packed full of wild grasses, vibrant scrub and healthy trees. A natural spring winds through the deep valley floor. Birds and insects have arrived in droves. Small mammals abound and predators include birds of prey, foxes and badgers. Most importantly, the black fallow have returned!

There are four varieties of fallow deer and the black fallow is the dark or melanistic form. It is quite stunning - the darker tones echoing ancient times. These elegant deer have long been prized as ornamental species and their history in the UK is closely linked to that of deer parks. Mamhead Park is quite an ancient deer park.

Fallow deer were first brought to Britain from the western Mediterranean during the Roman period when they were kept within enclosures known as ‘vivaria’. Genetic analysis has shown that these Roman fallow deer went extinct in Britain following the collapse of the Roman Empire.

It was not until the 11th century that they were reintroduced, this time from the eastern Mediterranean.

Initially, they were kept in parks as rare exotica but gradually their populations increased and they became an important source of venison for aristocratic tables. As the fashion for deer parks declined in the 15th century, many parks fell into disrepair and these medieval escapee deer are the foundation of the free-living population in Britain today.

Non-native, fallow deer are now considered naturalised and are locally quite visible.

They are widespread in England and Wales, but patchy in Scotland, inhabiting mature broadleaf woodland with under-storey, open coniferous woodland, and open agricultural land. They prefer to graze grasses although they will take trees and dwarf shrub shoots in autumn and winter.

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The Autumn months are the ‘rutting season’ for stags. They fight by interlocking their antlers attempting to wrestle the opponent to the ground. Sometimes it can take a few minutes and sometimes a few hours - rendering the beasts utterly exhausted. Black fallow bucks also bellow to keep other bucks away. It sounds like a deep, rasping smokers cough!

After mating, adult does give birth to a single fawn in June or July after a gestation of 229 days. Bucks generally live for up to 10 years although they can live as long as 16 years.

Fallow deer are active throughout the day and night but make use of open spaces during the hours of darkness in populations experiencing frequent disturbance. Peak activity is at dawn and dusk with most daytime hours spent ‘lying up’, where they lie down to ruminate between feeding bouts.

The black fallow restoration and conservation project at Dalwish Park is proving to be quite a success and today there are between 20 and 30 deer in the park at any one time. Dawn and dusk are particularly lively. It is a pleasure to see these elegant creatures finding a protected and wilded home from the increasingly dwindling habitats. The rewilding project no doubt reminds them of their wilder roots: Providing an inner calm.

Gradually the deer are settling in and wandering around the park like it is home. A start indeed.

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