Unidentified

Andrew, could they be sheep? We've had a few sheep wandering up from the paddocks lower down. They can get under or through the fences in places.

That's a possibility Steph and sheep did cross my mind, especially after looking at the scats nearby. But the disturbance to the ground surface is not characteristic of sheep (as far as I know, but I am happy to be corrected), and there is little fodder in the way of grass so far down the steep slope. I also thought of pigs, but they would make a lot more mess than just one small area of lightly turned soil. Never the less I have an open mind on sheep being the culprit.

Intriguing - I haven't seen any of this sort of soil disturbance associated with deer passage across our place. Maybe a spot where stags have been fighting? I'm familiar with wallows, but they are in wet areas and I vaguely recall that fallow deer don't wallow. What would clinch it for me would be ringbarked saplings from antler stropping - any sign of that? Or bits of wool caught on fences would take the verdict the other way. But deer are pretty common in Bournda NP, so not unlikely they have got as far as Black Range.

And we saw a large sambar with antlers beside the road to Tathra near Kalaru/Penuca last week. Another local has seen both sambar and roe deer on his farm, which adjoins both our block and Andrew's.

Roe deer? Not in Aust I think, unless it's an laternative name for fallow?

Yes, sorry, meant fallow. The little spotty ones.

Unless a local deer farmer was able to get a permit to import Roe Deer, this European species is unlikely and is not one of the six deer species wild in Australia. Being a similar size to the Fallow this may be a mistaken identity on the part of the local Steph referred to.