The RSPCA is investigating reports that wild animals are being shot dead on fields around Woking Palace Palace, used by Henry VIII as a hunting base.

The charity was alerted by a local resident who found three dead roe deer and was shown a dead barn owl by other locals. All of them had wounds that appeared to be bullet holes. An RSPCA inspector who visited the site was later called by a resident to examine a dead fox that seemed to have suffered the same fate.

The resident who found the deer, who wishes to remain anonymous, said he reported the finding to the authorities because of similar incidents that have been reported in Hampshire.

He said that after he found the deer, he returned two days later and one of the carcasses had been moved. One of the deer also had an ear missing and seemed to have been cut off rather than torn off by a fox or dog.

He said the RSPCA inspector also received a call saying there was in a fox in distress in St Peter's Road, Old Woking. He said: “By the time he arrived the fox was dead and, on examining it, he found a wound on its face.

“After taking the dead fox to a vet and X-raying it, the cause of death would appear that it had been shot. There were fragments of bone evident on the X-ray along with an object lodged in its neck.”

The resident said the fox is being kept in a freezer by the RSPCA while it continues to investigate. “The inspector has logged the incident along with that of the roe deer and the barn owl,” he said.

The resident has also reported the incidents to Surrey Police, who have asked him to provide more information.