The New Forest was proclaimed a royal forest, in about 1079, by William the Conqueror who, with his successors, hunted the deer. The forest was established at the expense of more than 20 small hamlets and isolated farmsteads; hence it was then 'new' as a single compact area.
Fallow deer are easily distinguished by their distinctive white rump with an inverted black ‘horseshoe’. Other species of deer which you might see in the New Forest are Roe, Red, Sika and Muntjac.
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