Deer wanders Puerto Banus streets, metres from luxury yachts

A red deer has been filmed walking the streets of Puerto Banus, the marina district of Marbella better known for superyachts, sports cars and restaurant terraces than for wildlife. In the clip, posted by the Facebook page Fuengirola se queja, the animal moves through ordinary traffic with pedestrians close by, looking badly out of place. Nobody in the footage is seen calling for help.

Wrong animal, wrong postcode

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Una publicación compartida por 𝐅𝐔𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐀 𝐒𝐄 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐉𝐀 (@fuengirolasequeja)

Puerto Banus sits about seven kilometres west of Marbella town, a working harbour lined with berths for large luxury yachts. Deer do not belong on that pavement. A free-living group has long used the scrub inland, between the Monte Mayor and Marbella Club golf courses in Benahavis, and stags are a normal sight in the hills above the coast during the autumn rut. A fully grown animal on a marina street is not.

Locals commenting on the video have linked the sighting to the Benahavis fire of September 13, which burned more than 300 hectares and started around the Ermita del Rosario, which eventually forced the evacuation of residents out of Montemayor Alto before Infoca brought it under control. A forest fire is known to push animals downhill and away from the immediate threat.

Traffic is the real danger

Whatever sent it into town, a stag on a Puerto Banus road is in immediate danger of being hit, and a panicking animal can injure a driver or a passer-by. Costa del Sol towns already know the pattern from wild boar, which turn up in urbanisations, on beaches and on the A-7. A deer in the marina is rarer, and more startling, because this corner of Marbella sells itself on polished streets, not on sierra wildlife a few metres from the quay.

Do not feed it, corner it or try to steer it with a car. Call 112 and ask for Seprona, the Guardia Civil nature unit, or the environmental agents. Andalucia’s emergency line is the right first stop: 112 Andalucia. Guardia Civil’s nature unit handles cases like this: Seprona.

See boar encounters: what to do and what not to do. Mijas has also warned residents off feeding boar on the street. A phone video will not get a deer off a Puerto Banus road.