Deer

The history of the sika deer

Lord Powerscourt once had a large deer park at the waterfall where he had many different types of deer including the red deer which are native to Ireland, Indian Sambur deer and the South African Eland.
The animal that Powerscourt is most famous for is the small Japanese sika deer (Cervus nippon). These deer first appeared in Ireland in 1858, when Mervyn Edward Wingfield (better known as the 7th Viscount Powerscourt) decided to introduce a number of exotic deer species as decorative additions to the one hundred acre Powerscourt deer-park.

One species, the sika deer, flourished. The four original imports (one male and three females) soon became hundreds. From here they quickly spread throughout Ireland. Lord Powerscourt gave a number as gifts to estates in Killarney, Monaghan, Limerick and Down. A broken fence in the deer-park led to the escape of many more into the surrounding Wicklow Mountains. The deer bred with native red deer, and today it is thought that all of the deer in Wicklow are in fact sika-red hybrids.