Right off the bat, here’s the straight answer: there are roughly 630 to 650 deer in Richmond Park at any given time. But don’t write that number in stone, because it changes faster than a squirrel dodging a jogger. The park is a wild place, and the deer don’t exactly line up for a census.
The park’s management does a proper count every winter, usually in January or February. They do it from helicopters and on foot, like a very slow, very polite military operation. The goal is to keep the herd healthy, not just to satisfy our nosy curiosity.
So, why the range of numbers? Well, births and deaths are the main culprits. A doe can have one or two fawns in June, and suddenly the count jumps by fifty or sixty adorable, wobbly-legged bundles of chaos. It’s a seasonal party in the park.
The Two Main Herds: Red vs. Fallow
You don’t just have one type of deer; you’ve got two VIP groups. There are the Red deer, the big, majestic show-offs with antlers that look like they belong in a Viking saga. They’re the headliners, the celebrity couple you came to see.
Then there are the Fallow deer, which are smaller and fancier, with spots like they’ve been sprinkled with glitter. Fallow deer are the indie band of the park—less famous but just as lovely, and they come in more color varieties (dark, light, even white). Together, they make a beautiful, antler-filled symphony.
Currently, the Reds make up about 300 to 350 of the total, and the Fallows take the rest. But it’s not a competition—though the stags definitely think it is during rutting season, when they start bellowing like angry opera singers.
