YOU don’t expect to find wildlife like this on your doorstep when you live in the heart of suburbia.

Tim Rendle was shocked to discover this small, doe-eyed muntjac deer grazing in the back garden of his home in Cedars Road, Colchester, on Saturday night.

The web designer accidentally scared it into his next door neighbour’s garden, where it was trapped for 17 hours.

Tim joked: “I’m used to a different type of animal in Colchester town centre on Saturday nights.

“The muntjac must have just walked into town. I was trying to walk my way round it to get it out, but it bolted into the next garden.

“It only had to clear a foot-high wall, but instead it jumped down an eight foot drop and it was totally stuck.”

Tim and neighbours Pamela Carper and Nicky Philips spent the next 17 hours trying to contact wildlife rescue centres to find it a new home.

He said: “It was a bit distressing because it kept jumping up.

“Pamela and Nicky got through to the Essex Wildlife Trust, in Fingringhoe.

“Warden Matt Cole came round. He was really good and caught it.”

After checking it was not injured, the animal was released to a more suitable habitat outside Colchester.

Warden Matt Cole, of Essex Wildlife Trust, said: “We do occasionally get calls from residents about them and we help where we can. But they can be a real menace – they love munching roses!”

So much so, conservationists sometimes view muntjacs as pests because they like munching plants, such as bluebells and primulas, which have high conservation status.