Mike,Les I've never been to the new forest,I've never seen sika in the wild. I knew what I was looking at has sika blood but no idea about purity I am aware that our own Red deer, the North American Elk/ Wapiti and the various incarnates of sika all share a common ancestor. which broke into the three populations N american Eupopean and Asian we know today So the (probably) Japanese sika here in the UK are actively hybridising with the red . The hybrids being fertile are a problem. Mike it appears from a quick look at the BDS site that the new forest hold one of the few pops of pure sika .
So Les, it looks like you and bang on mate
cheers for this. I was sort of angling for knowledge on how to ID hybrids............ but that looks hard ok impossible
:.
After reading Les's post I went to the font of all UK Deer knowledge.................. the Brit Deer Society. It appears that the hybrids after gen one ie the F 1 are the devils own to ID . Following gens look more and more like one or other parent.
Lads a link.................
https://www.bds.org.uk/index.php/ad...MIrNDXl6yk5wIVCbrtCh3mUQAeEAAYASAAEgKE7_D_BwE
what else do you see in this link regarding red deer and sika hybrids??
There is something in there quite........ well............. mind boggling if it's true??
Mike.......................... I hope this is just plain fascinating to you not derailing your lovely image thread .
stu