Wild London: Deer, Pelicans, Parakeets and Seals

London’s wild side, from the red and fallow deer of Richmond and Bushy Parks and the pelicans of St James’s Park to the parakeets, foxes and bats of the city’s green spaces and the seals of the Thames Estuary, with a directory of the parks, reserves and zoo where you can see them. Every fact checked with The Royal Parks, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, ZSL and the London Wildlife Trust.

London is wilder than it looks. Red and fallow deer graze under ancient oaks within sight of the City’s towers, pelicans have lived on the lake in St James’s Park since the reign of Charles II, and bright green parakeets chatter in the treetops of the parks. At dusk, foxes trot along suburban pavements and bats hunt over the ponds.

Much of this wildlife lives in the Royal Parks and in reserves such as the WWT London Wetland Centre at Barnes, built on four old reservoirs in a loop of the Thames. You need no special kit to enjoy it: good shoes, a little patience and, for the deer, a long lens rather than a short distance.

Six hundred and thirty wild deer, six pelicans with four new chicks, and a flash of green in every plane tree: London is wilder than it looks.

The deer of Richmond and Bushy Parks

Richmond Park, the largest of the Royal Parks, has kept deer since Charles I brought them here in 1637. Today a herd of about 630 wild red and fallow deer roams freely across its grassland and among its veteran oaks, and the park is a National Nature Reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a European Special Area of Conservation, the last for its globally endangered stag beetles. The Royal Parks counts 144 species of birds, 29 of butterflies and 11 of bats here.

Bushy Park, next to Hampton Court Palace, has its own red and fallow deer among the avenues and woodland gardens. Autumn is the rut, when the stags roar and clash and are at their most impressive, and most unpredictable; in early summer the young are born, hidden in the bracken. In both seasons, and all year round, keep at least 50 metres from the deer and never feed or touch them.

On the water: the Thames and the wetlands

The Thames is a living river again. Harbour seals and grey seals haul out on the sandbanks of the Thames Estuary, and ZSL (the Zoological Society of London) counts them every year from boats, aircraft and the shore, to see how the estuary is faring.

Upstream at Barnes, the WWT London Wetland Centre opened in May 2000 on four disused Victorian reservoirs. More than 100 acres of lakes, reedbeds and meadows, part of them a Site of Special Scientific Interest, draw waterbirds all year, and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust keeps otters and the UK’s only flock of Australian pelicans. Paths and hides are accessible, and the centre is open from 10am to 4.30pm (last admission 3.30pm) every day except Christmas Day.

Birds and flyways

St James’s Park, between Buckingham Palace and Whitehall, is one of the easiest places in Europe to watch waterbirds at close range. The Royal Parks records more than 40 species of water bird on its lake: mallards, moorhens and coots all year, tufted ducks arriving from Iceland and northern Europe in the migration season, and shelducks, wigeon, teal, pintails and goldeneye. Duck Island and West Island give nesting space to robins, wrens and blue tits, woodpeckers and tawny owls; in the reedbeds you may hear reed warblers, and little grebes dive for food.

The sound you notice first, though, is a shriek from the treetops. Rose-ringed (or ring-necked) parakeets, native to Africa and South Asia, have made their home in London’s parks, and the London Wildlife Trust now treats them as an established wild bird of the capital. Richmond Park and the commons of south-west London are good places to see them flash green against a winter sky.

After dark: foxes and bats

Red foxes are London’s most familiar wild mammal, at home in parks, railway cuttings, cemeteries and back gardens from the suburbs to the centre. They are most active at dawn and dusk, when you may see one cross a quiet street or nose along the edge of a lawn. Enjoy the sight, but don’t feed them.

As the light fades over the ponds and lakes, bats come out to hunt insects over the water. Richmond Park alone has 11 species; a warm summer evening by its ponds is the time to look for them.

Feature: the pelicans of St James’s Park

Pelicans have been part of St James’s Park for more than 360 years. A pair was presented to Charles II by the Russian Ambassador in 1664, and more than 40 birds have lived on the lake since. Today’s residents are six great white pelicans, Isla, Tiffany, Gargi, Sun, Moon and Star. They spend most of the day on the lake and its rocks, and are usually fed fresh fish, such as roach, at around 2.30pm.

Did you know? In June 2026 four pelican chicks hatched in St James’s Park, the first in the park in 360 years. The Royal Parks has added an extra morning feed for the growing family, and asks visitors to give the birds plenty of space.

Our advice

Our advice: for the deer, go to Richmond Park early on an autumn morning, stay on the paths and use a long lens; keep at least 50 metres away, and keep dogs on a lead near the herds (dogs must be on leads in Richmond and Bushy Parks from 1 May to 31 July, when the young are born). Be at the lake in St James’s Park by 2.30pm to see the pelicans fed. For the wetlands, give the WWT London Wetland Centre at Barnes half a day and check its latest sightings before you go. And never feed wild animals, from deer and foxes to pelicans: it harms them.