AN explosion in the East Lancashire deer population is posing a hazard for the region's motorists, it was claimed today.

The death of a motorcyclist who hit a deer in the Trough of Bowland has prompted calls for more road signs to warn motorists and a sign near the site of the accident.

Jeffrey Craig Barsby, of Higher Causeway, Barrowford, died on Sunday after the crash on the isolated Whitewell Road, Cow Ark.

Frank Thurlow, a retired forester, works 'on-call' for police whenever there is an incident involving deer in the Eastern Division covering Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley.

He said: "They want to place a few more warning signs around the area. I make a note of every incident I attend so it would be easy to say where one should put the danger signs." Mr Thurlow attended the crash scene in Cow Ark and confirmed that the animal was a Roe deer and not a Red deer as first thought.

Mr Thurlow said numbers of Roe deer, although difficult to put a figure on, had exploded over the past decade.

This was because the territorial elder deers threw their fawns out very young, leaving them having to find new areas to live, he added.

Mr Thurlow said: "This is not just happening here, but across the country. I have been called out about four times in the past 10 days, although it is normally once a week.

"I have even been to Accrington Road in Blackburn where a deer had been knocked down."

Inspector Bob Ford, of Clitheroe police, has revealed that a police vehicle had collided with a deer in the past few weeks in the Ribble Valley.

Tony Jackson, of the Bowland Deer Management Group, said there were two main species of deer in Ribble Valley: sika, of which there are about 300 in the Bowland area, and roe, of which there are about 600.

Tony Jackson, a former Ribble Valley Mayor, said: "There are more deer in England now than in Robin Hood's day."

A Lancashire County Council spokesman said: "We are looking at circumstances of the accidents to decide whether a warning sign is required to make people aware of wild animals on the road."