In recent weeks, amateur naturalists from the local wildlife trust have spotted a muntjac by Hogan's Music in Craven Road in the wee hours, and roe deer grazing close to the Hambridge Lane industrial estate. Other sightings by the public include Newtown Road and the Bath Road at Speen.

The town has long been popular with foxes and seagulls picking through leftover takeaway, but deer prefer to stick by dense cover.

Berkshire Buckingham and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust have been culling muntjac on local reserves, because the tiny Asian deer - now widespread after escaping from a Derbyshire estate 150 years ago - has a voracious appetite for many species of rare wildflowers.

But even though reserves like Snelsmore have been fenced off, there is plenty of wooded country in the Newbury area for the deer, so their arrival in town, feeding off scraps, is a significant change in behaviour.