Dixie is one of our muntjac deer. He came to us when he was found orphaned (his mum hadn’t been back for him in 2 days which normally means mum has been killed or injured). He was so tiny and young (probably under a week old) and he had to be bottle fed every few hours. He’s the sweetest fawn ever and so tame and friendly. Because muntjac are not native to England, it’s illegal to release them back into the wild so we’ve had to spend thousands of pounds on building an enclosure for us to keep them (it’s that or put them to sleep and Jodie will never allow a healthy animal to be put to sleep). We have applied for a licence to keep our muntjacs and a vet has signed it off for us after inspecting the enclosure so now we’re just waiting to hear back about the licence. The enclosure is huge and can probably house up to 15 muntjac if any more come in in the future. Dixie, along with Delta and Dodger lived indoors for a long time while the enclosure was being built but now he’s outside he’s loving life. His favourite foods are blueberries, raspberries and willow leaves. Every day we cut down different tree branches to give to the deer as in the wild they are browsers who will eat lots of different things. They’re all extremely happy here and because they’ve all been with us from so young, they’re very confident.

Dodger is one of our muntjac deer. Jodie got a call one night to say that a baby deer had been found in a pub car park so Jodie jumped in the car to go and assess it. When she arrived she quickly realised that his jaw was broken and he had a twisted neck. Because he was so young and tiny, Jodie knew that the jaw would heal itself in time and wouldn’t need surgery. Dodger was brought home that night and was then bottle fed. Jodie also gave him painkillers for the first week he was here for the broken jaw. Today Dodger’s jaw has fully healed and he eats and drinks fine (although his neck is still a bit wonky). His neck doesn’t bother him at all and he’s actually the tamest and friendliest of all of our deer. He can’t ever be released as it’s illegal to release muntjac into the wild. They are classed as an invasive species because they’re not native to England. Because of that we’ve built a muntjac enclosure and applied for a licence to keep them. The enclosure had to be built to very specific requirements and cost a lot of money but it was that or have them put to sleep which Jodie wouldn’t allow. Dodger is such a happy little boy and loves all the other animals and all humans. He’s like a puppy and follows us about inside the enclosure. We all love him so much.

Delta (on the left) is the first muntjac that Jodie hand-reared and bottle fed (and who survived - so many deer are so weak or badly injured that they don’t survive). He’s the sweetest boy ever but only trusts Jodie and so Jodie had to work round the clock to do all his feeds. He bonded with Jodie very quickly and after he finishes his milk he washes Jodie’s face all over. Deltas background is that he and his mum were grazing in someone’s garden when their dogs went out and chased them. The mum got away but Delta fell into their swimming pool. They fished him out and then kept him overnight. Jodie got the call in the morning to go and get him. As soon as you contain a muntjac it becomes illegal to release them back into the wild but of course his mum was long gone by then anyway and he needed special care and bottle feeding. He’s such an incredible little boy and he loves our other muntjacs. They all sleep together in their shelter in their enclosure and they snuggle up together. Because it’s illegal to release muntjac into the wild we have had to build a special enclosure for them (to specific requirements) and we have applied for a licence to keep them. Jodie is a responder for Deer Aid in Essex and Herts so often gets calls about deer that have been injured or orphaned. Jodie regularly attends road accidents involving deer and also is on call 24/7 for deer that need emergency help or treatment. Delta is so loved by everyone at Fripps. He’s a little star who has taken our other fawns under his wing and looked after them.

Brendan is a male muntjac deer. He was coming to visit a lady in her garden in London every day and she was feeding him. He has a broken lower jaw but he he eats fine. Over the last 5 months he had become very tame, even eating out of her hand. One of her neighbours then reported her saying that their children were scared of the deer. She had a knock at the door, not once, but twice from an animal charity saying they needed to euthanise him. They said that what she was doing was illegal. It’s not. It’s illegal to keep them without a licence (she wasn’t keeping him, he could come and go as he pleased) and it’s illegal to release them back into the wild once you have captured them, but of course she hadn’t captured him.

Anyway, word got to us and we quickly dashed over there to capture him and bring him back to Fripps. It took 7 of us to catch him (and lots of nets). Muntjac are probably the hardest of all wild animals to capture as they are so quick and they can jump really high. We had 2 days left before the animal charity were returning to try and euthanise him again. We have a deer licence to keep muntjac so he is now safe with us for life. We are going to let him settle before we try to look at his jaw to see if anything can be done to help him but the fact that he’s eating fine shows that he’ll be ok either way.

When we released him into our muntjac enclosure, he went straight up to our other deer and they all had a good sniff of each other and by that first night they were all running about playing together. He is already so loved and we’ve told the lady who was feeding him that she’s welcome to come and see him any time she wants.

Brenda was brought to us with a massive head injury. We kept her indoors for a week while we treated the wound and then she was fit enough to go out with the other muntjac. For a wild animal she’s extremely tame so we think someone had perhaps been feeding her before she got injured. She’s very happy living with her muntjac friends and she LOVES her food. Unfortunately she can never be released as once a muntjac has been captured (even due to injury or sickness), it’s illegal to release them into the wild as they are classed as invasive. We are surprised at how quickly Brenda settled in and made friends with our other deer. She’s very confident and just slotted in like she’s always been here. We love her very much and we are so glad that in our care she made a full recovery from her nasty wound.