A rare, invasive deer, spotted in Ireland for the first time in six years, was captured by Wild Life Rangers from Glenveagh last night in Stranorlar.
Footage of a Reeves Muntjac Deer was captured by Kieran Bradley, who lives in the Ard McCool estate in Stranorlar on Saturday. This is the first time ever that this species has been spotted in Donegal.
Kieran’s video and photographs were passed on to the Wild Deer Association of Ireland.
“This is the first evidence we have seen of Muntjac Deer in Ireland since 2011,” said the Association and the rangers last night netted the Muntjac in a yard just behind the Ard McCool estate.
In 2016, the EU classified Muntjac Deer as an invasive species.
The muntjac, which is about the size of a fox and barks like a dog, has been illegally introduced into the wild in Ireland.
DUP MLA Jim Wells had tabled an Assembly Question in Stormont back in December, querying the numbers of the invasive deer and was told, by the Environment Minister Michelle McIlveen that her department was ‘not aware of a significant escape of Reeves’ Muntjac in the Letterkenny area of County Donegal’.