Unidentified

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Unidentified at suppressed - suppressed
Unidentified at suppressed - suppressed
Unidentified at suppressed - suppressed
Unidentified at suppressed - suppressed
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Identification history

Unidentified 5 Aug 2020 AndrewMcCutcheon

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User's notes

In the forested area on our block near a patch of rainforest is an area of disturbed ground with some small hoof-prints (about 60 mm). The only animals I can think of responsible for these foot prints are feral goats or a smaller deer species such as Fallow Deer. Also shown are some scats less than 10 metres away from the disturbed site.

5 comments

StephH wrote:
   5 Aug 2020
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.
   5 Aug 2020
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.
StephH wrote:
   7 Aug 2020
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.
StephH wrote:
   7 Aug 2020
Yes, sorry, meant fallow. The little spotty ones.
   7 Aug 2020
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.

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