The Fence

We hate disturbing deer when we're out walking, but we often come across herds and they're quick to see us - and their immediate reaction is to run away. When this happens, we stand still, in the open so they can see us and know that we aren't a threat, and watch as they disappear from view.

The other day, while walking above Bourblaige, this small herd of some twenty-five animals, which included stags, hinds and this year's young, were already moving from the area of the village up the hill, but we also noticed....

....that they had left one of the young on the other side of the fence that separates the open hill from Bourblaige. It kept walking up and down the fence looking for a way through until, finally, it ran parallel to the fence, swung away from it, and then came back and jumped it.

A few minutes later we came upon this distressing sight, the leg of a deer caught in the same fence. It's difficult to imagine how the deer managed it, as its leg....

....had somehow become twisted between the single strand of galvanised wire and the top of the square mesh wire in the lower part of the fence.

There was no escape. It must have been a long and lingering and horrible death, trapped by its leg while it struggled and died. The predators which found it had scattered its bones in the long grass, leaving the leg held firmly by the wire.