A sweet-toothed stag has become public enemy number one in a tiny Highland village by invading gardens and eating strawberries.
For the past four months the residents of Banavie near Fort William have had daily visits from the young deer.
One victim, Louise Oliver, 46, has only two strawberries left on her patch after repeated raids from the stag.
She said yesterday (Tues): “He’s been at my garden plot which at the moment is filled with strawberries and potatoes, although he hasn’t bothered much with the potatoes.
“I think he just went straight for the strawberries, and one of the neighbours said he ate the cherry blossoms off one of her trees.
“I was really quite surprised when I first saw it as we don’t really have that many deer nearby, so it was a bit of a novelty.
“At first I thought it was our cocker spaniel puppy Cailean (corr) stealing the fruit, but then we realised it was the deer so he’s off the hook now.
“Cailean’s only a year old and quite hyper so tries to go after it, but the deer only runs away and comes back again when it’s quiet.
“It seems to come along at almost any time during the day. He just wanders into anyone’s garden and has been doing this for the past three or four months.
“It just seems to come and go as it pleases and usually wanders about within a mile radius looking for something it can eat.
“I went up to try and touch hit as he seems to be quite tame but he moved away when I tried to get close.
“He hasn’t caused any real damage yet but he has been coming quite close to the cars so I’m a bit worried about paintwork getting scratched and the windows getting damaged by his antlers.
“Everyone in the area thinks it’s quite cute as he’s not really doing any damage, but after a while you do get a bit annoyed as he always eats the plants in your garden. “It is nice in a way as it’s quite unusual to have a tame deer roaming about, but it’s just a shame about all the strawberries.”