Richmond Park is home to an abundance of wildlife, from majestic Red Deer to Stag Beetles. Explore the biodiversity of this incredible ecosystem, and join us as we look for wildlife in Richmond Park.

As the UK’s largest land mammal, red deer are truly majestic creatures. The males, known as stags, develop a large set of antlers that grow with age and are shed and regrown each year, while the females or hinds lack antlers and tend to be smaller.

Red deer certainly leave their mark on the landscape. Nearly all of the trees in the park have a distinctive ‘browse line’ at 1.5 metres above the ground, caused by deer eating all the leaves and twigs that grow below that height. Their constant grazing on grasses, shoots and shrubs prevents saplings from growing, maintaining the largest area of Lowland Acid Grassland in London, hosting much of the park’s diversity.

Thanks Albi for the London Timelapse footage :)

00:00 Intro
00:15 Refuge in the City
01:23 Red Deer in the Park
03:20 Life in the Deadwood
04:36 The Detrital Food Web
06:16 Colonisers
07:59 Hunters and the Hunted
09:16 Life on the Riverbed
10:22 Outro