Muntjac manoeuvres

Every stalker knows that it is possible to call roe deer in the rut. Indeed, over many decades German hunters elevated almost to an art form the luring of randy roebucks to their doom by using no more than a beech leaf stretched between their two thumbs. Until recently, however, few people realised that the same trick could be played on the muntjac.

When you think about it, it is hardly surprising that a creature that evolved for millennia in the dense forests and thickets of South- East Asia responds to sound. We have all heard muntjac bark, sometimes for extended periods of 40 minutes or so, and it thus takes no great leap of understanding to appreciate that audible communication plays a crucial part