In reply to ThunderCat:
> It really was a hold-your-breath moment...I've never seen one in the wild before.
Blimey. Go to the New Forest, or Purbeck, and you can't avoid them. They even graze the grass by the side of the road as you enter Wareham. I once nearly got trampled by a herd leaping over a fence from woods to a field whilst supervising DofE, at Mockbeggar on the W edge of the New Forest... On another DofE supervision, we were standing by the side of a quiet road, waiting for the girls to come through, and were disturbed by an awful stink; turned out to the be dumped lights and head of a deer, presumably killed & butchered by a poacher or opportunistic roadkill collector...
Even the business park I work on, in Reading, has a deer population/visitors, both roe & muntjac.