The mountains are a haunt of red deer.
Pigs and a hardy breed of ponies find a good living in the forest; and in spite of an act in 1851 providing for their extermination or removal, a few red deer still survive.
Large tracts are still uncultivated; and the wild red deer and native Exmoor pony are characteristic of the district.
A few red deer still occur in the wilder hilly district.
The red deer (Cervus elaphus) is now widely distributed as a wild animal over New Zealand, where also the fallow-deer (C. dama) and the Indian sambar (C. aristotelis or unicolor) have been introduced locally.