It's How They Look

Looking at wild animals such as deer every so often you are freshly reminded just how beautiful they are. In the case of red deer I find it’s their coats that are so appealing, especially in summer and autumn. Of course in winter they put on extra layers of fluffy insulation which protect them from the cold and by early spring that starts to look scruffy as the extra layers moult. But even that is disarmingly attractive. By now, in October, they are at their peak, looking their best and ready for any opportunity like any young blade about town. By comparison much of the farm livestock that is 'utilised' (God, what an ugly word!) for conservation grazing is depressingly unattractive. You frequently see them looking pretty unhealthy and with excrement sticking to them in a way you never see with deer in the wild. I guess that’s why the more cunning managers like to use highland cattle, though so strong is the philistine tendency that sooner or later we’ll see them with numbers daubed on their backs. I can remember as a small child being taken to look at lambs frisking in the fields. Nowadays you could very well find they were all covered with lurid and untidy patches of coloured dye or even grotesque numbers. Soon there will be a generation which has never seen a sheep without these identification marks on them. Further than that my prediction is that farmers will in time be pressing for deer to be controlled and regulated, with marks on their backs and subjected to an annual dip. Already they are raising fears about ticks and it’s not hard to see they will blame the presence of deer. But the idea that such problems are the fault of the beautiful wild animals that we see on the moor when the farm animals often look so wretched - well, that seems hard to take.

This morning was a welcome respite after yesterday's downpour but the early walk was not yet bright and sunny. The sun was struggling to get through the mist and when approaching the hinds from downwind we were closer than usual giving rise to suspicious looks from the dominant stag further away.