Richmond Park's urgent warning after toddler held up within feet of stag

Richmond Park has warned visitors not to attack its deer aft a young miss was pictured successful beforehand of a stag during rutting season.

Photographer Tim Constable photographed the unsafe infinitesimal erstwhile a antheral held a toddler up adjacent to the deer’s antlers portion taking pictures successful the London park.

He told the Telegraph that the genitor was not lone putting his information astatine hazard but his child’s too.

Mr Constable said: “When the antlers went down, I deliberation they realised the stag meant business. They were dilatory to backmost away, though.

“It seemed a precise unusual happening to bash putting your kid successful the mode of immoderate monolithic antlers.”

The lensman added that helium thought the “stag would attack”.

Richmond Park and Bushy Park are location to implicit 1,000 free-roaming reddish and fallow cervid and visitors are urged to instrumentality other caution portion visiting the parks successful cervid rutting season, betwixt September and aboriginal November.

The Royal Parks, who negociate some sites, person warned that rutting stags measurement implicit 25 chromatic and scope speeds of up to 30 miles per hour, adding that the animals tin beryllium “highly unpredictable”.

Peter Lawrence, the adjunct parkland manager astatine Richmond Park, warned visitors to enactment astatine slightest 50 metres distant from cervid during rutting season.

He told the Telegraph: “We were profoundly acrophobic to spot an image, taken implicit the weekend, of 2 visitors, including a child, lasting dangerously adjacent to a rutting cervid successful Richmond Park.

“This is an highly unsafe situation. We punctual each visitors to Richmond Park and Bushy Park to workout utmost caution during the rutting season, which runs from precocious September to aboriginal November.

“During this period, antheral cervid whitethorn grounds heightened aggression arsenic they vie for mates, making their behaviour unpredictable and perchance dangerous.

“For safety, visitors should support a region of astatine slightest 50 metres from the deer, and up to 100 metres if they are moving.”

The Royal Parks website warns that being deed by a stag travelling astatine afloat velocity “is the equivalent of being mown down by a motorbike”.

An proposal leafage adds: “If you would deliberation doubly earlier entering into an enclosed abstraction with a bull, past we impulse you to use this communal consciousness to chaotic deer.”

In April, Richmond Park visitors were filmed attempting to propulsion the antlers disconnected the park’s deer, according to police.

Royal Parks Police said it had received “concerning” reports implicit the play of radical attempting to propulsion the deer’s antlers, saying immoderate of the reports had been captured connected video.

The cervid person been roaming freely successful Richmond Park since 1637.

Yuan Li, 43, feared for her beingness erstwhile she was stabbed done the thigh and her tummy arsenic she was mauled successful beforehand of horrified tourists.