In 1776 the roe deer, our oldest surviving native mammal, was totally exterminated in all England and Wales. Only pockets survived in remote parts of Scotland. Following re-introductions by the aristocracy, by 1900 there were roe populations in a small number of southern counties, the Lake District and parts of Wales. In 1963, founder members of the British Deer Society advised the government on the framing of the Deer Act, which introduced for the first time legal protection for roe. Since then, populations underwent rapid expansion, re-colonising almost every other rural English county.
The government estimates that within ten years there will not be a single 10-kilometer square of land anywhere in England that does not have a resident deer population. The roe is back.