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year in the life
Phoenix Park deer: 'The bucks are in the bachelor area ... the females are up near Castleknock'
There are roughly 500 deer at any one time in the park, with a new batch of fawns ready to arrive in June.
IT’S NEARLY FAWNING season in the Phoenix Park.
There’ll be about 100 new additions to the 500-strong herd, which were originally introduced more than 350 years ago by the Duke of Ormond, William Butler.
“Mating season is in October,” Park Ranger Terry Moore told us this week, as he talked us through the annual mating cycle of the fallow deer. “The bucks will go into the female areas and fight for dominancy to see who will get to mate with the females.”
Science students from UCD will descend on the park to help tag the animals and carry out research once the new fawns are born. On a slightly less pleasant note, Moore also chatted to us about culling the herd … all part of the life cycle of the park, he said.
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