THE EXMOOR RED DEER
[To the Editor of the SPEc-r_cron.]
Sin,—I fear your suggestion that a certain number of Exmoor red deer should be preserved in a " National Park," after the extermination of the remainder, would not be practicable. If by a " National Park " you mean an ordinary fenced deer park—and an unfenced reserve would leave the problem of control where it is at present—the animals would not thrive there. Exmoor deer resemble the Langul of Kashmir, and the race of the red deer which inhabits the Carpathian moun- tains in that as soon as they are deprived of the tree food which only a free range allows, and are compelled to exist on grass only, they become infested with internal parasites and die a lingering and miserable death.
In effect, therefore, you argue that the last remnant of wild red deer in Southern England must be exterminated by methods humane and inhumane because we cannot control their increase in ways as far superior to nature's—which is pursuit by wolves—as is ideally desirable. Carried to its logical conclusion this policy would involve the total exter- mination of all wild animals whose unchecked increase is a menace to human property in all places where their haunts and habits render the infliction of instantaneous death upon most of the redundant specimens impossible.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Glentrool, Bargrennan, TAVISTOCK. Newton Stewart, Scotland.
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