St. Patty's Day in Klampenborg

Today, St. Patrick's Day, while many were in Copenhagen attending the parade and other activities, we decided to visit Dyrehaven in Klampenborg. Corey had been to this park on several occasions, once to complete a hike for his Boy Scout Hiking badge, and was excited for us to return with him to see the deer. It was a beautiful day for walking, exploring and I had a chance to plant a letterbox :o) 


Dyrehaven was once a Royal hunting ground and today, a popular recreational area for activities like biking, jogging, picnics and animal watching. It is a beautiful mixture of grassy areas and majestic forests with centuries-old trees. 


Hackney carriages, which in their time brought the Copenhageners to the Deer Park, are still an essential element of the Park's special atmosphere. To this day you can climb aboard a hackney carriage at Klampenborg Station or at the entrance of the Deer Park amusement park and go for a ride in the park along the broad forest paths...saw a few of these while walking.

It was King Frederik III who in 1669 decided to fence in an area, North of Copenhagen, with rolling hills and woods. He then had about 2,000 deer driven into the area and made it a royal hunting ground for the next almost 100 years until Dyrehaven was opened to the general public in 1756. 

Eremitageslottet or The Eremitage Castle was built as a royal hunting lodge in order to host banquets during the many royal hunts.

While King Christian V was in power, he had the park enlarged to almost 3,000 acres, with the intention that it be used for hunting with hounds. A pack of hounds was used to pursue the deer until it dropped from exhaustion, then a specially chosen hunter was given the honor of killing the game with a special hunting knife. Hunting on horse-back with hounds was popular among the nobility in Denmark for about 100 years. 


There are three types of deer in the park: the Red Deer, the Fallow Deer, and the Silkas. I believe we got a good look at all three while we were there. I thought it might be difficult to tell them apart but it wasn't. Although many fawns are born in the spring, the park keeps the deer population at about 2,100 in order to maintain a healthy population.


300 Red Deer
Red deer stags are the biggest of all the stags. An adult stag can weigh over 445 pounds. The coat is a reddish-brown in the summer and a greyish-brown in the winter. The hinds (females) and their fawns stay mostly in the southern part of the Deer Park, whereas the stags remain more to the north. There are also white Red deer in the Park which were introduced from Würtemberg in 1737. 

1700 Fallow Deer
The Fallow deer often stay together in big herds of several hundred animals and can usually be seen on the open plains. Their coats are three different colors: black, white and a brownish red. However the brownish red coats are the most common. The deer were introduced from the Middle East and are mentioned in written sources as roaming about freely in Denmark as far back as 1231.

100 Sikas
Sika deer are a little smaller than fallow deer. Their summer coat is a chestnut color with whitish-yellow spots, whereas the winter coat is an even dark-brown (females) and black (males). The antlers are similar to those of the Red deer, however they are smaller and never have more than 8 points. This breed, which has been in the Deer Park since 1923, was introduced from Japan. 

Several of the Silkas were engaged in antler clashing

While we were there, we witnessed quite a display of clashing antlers. Rutting season, or breeding season, is in October and November, so my best guess at this behavior would be that the young bucks were "rough-housing". If you turn on the volume for this video, you will hear the antlers clashing...

Although the deer are fenced in and kept in the park, there are no fences between us and them. They are used to people in the park but still see humans as a threat and will defend themselves. The biggest rule in this park is to stay on the trails and not wander too close to the deer, especially during rutting season! 

Many hinds (females) were foraging & resting

May be albino, or white Red deer, hard to tell

We are looking forward to returning in May and June, if not before, to see all of the baby fawns. There are usually about 700 born during the spring months!!