London - The mystery surrounding the mighty stag the Exmoor Emperor took an intriguing twist on Wednesday night - with claims he is still alive.
A local farmer said the magnificent 2,7m-tall beast had been spotted in a back garden a week ago.
The unverified sighting creates fresh mystery over reports that the creature - thought to be the largest wild animal in Britain - had been cut down in his prime by trophy hunters.
It was presumed the Emperor had been gunned down by marksmen seeking his prized head and antlers, which could fetch as much as £2 000.
Since reports of the giant red stag’s apparent killing two weeks ago in Rackenford, north Devon, no one has come forward to claim the kill or produce hard evidence of it. Local landowners deny they sanctioned the killing.
Now some Exmoor residents claim talk of the Emperor’s death is a “myth” which was invented to protect the animal from rogue hunters.
Lesley Prior, 54, a farmer in nearby Oakford, said yesterday: “The animal has been seen regularly after the time he was supposedly shot near Rackenford.My builder, who lives five miles away on Exmoor, was telling me a few days ago that the stag had been in his garden last week.
“Most locals are fiercely protective of this stag, knowing him very well.
“This includes members of the local stag hunt who have a considerable respect for this elderly male and were not keen to see him end up as a trophy on someone’s wall. I won’t believe he is dead until I see actual evidence of it.”
Others claim a large stag - purportedly the Emperor - has been spotted nearby, with rumours rife around Winsford, a scenic village just a few miles from Rackenford.
A villager in Winsford, who did not want to be named, said: “There has been a lot of talk in the village about a large stag spotted in the hills here. Some people have claimed it is the Emperor.”
Exmoor, a former royal hunting ground, is popular with both local hunters and wealthy outsiders, who fly in on jets or helicopters to stalk red deer. They pay landowners to hunt legally on their land.
But wildlife lovers have been furious at the reported demise of the Emperor, especially as it is the middle of the rutting season, when he should be passing on the genetic bounty that allowed him to achieve such a huge stature. Ian Liddell-Grainger, the Conservative MP who is also a vice president of the Exmoor Society, said he was “bloody furious” about the “inexcusable” apparent shooting and planned to try to establish the identity of the culprit.
If poachers were responsible for killing the Emperor, there could be a police inquiry into their trespassing.
It is impossible to know whether the reported sightings are really the Emperor or another large red stag.
Peter Donnelly, an Exmoor-based deer management expert, said he had recently seen a very large young stag - “a magnificent specimen” - that could be one of the Emperor’s offspring from a previous rutting season.
Donnelly believes, on the weight of evidence, that The Emperor is dead. - Daily Mail