Red Deer rut at Normanby

Yes it’s that time of year again and the rut is well underway with the hinds now in season being chased by great roaring stags - you can smell the musky aroma of the stags and they are indeed busy scent marking trees and making themselves look vaguely daft by gorging lumps of grass and ferns up, making them look like decked up Christmas trees!

Red Deer Rutting Season

Well it’s that time of year again when the battle of the stags gets underway in the Park.  Already the battle seems to be have won by one contender and he seems to have won a large group of females with no real fight on his hand.  The remaining stags seem to be  haggling over a small group of females and were fighting this afternoon - most images are heavily cropped as the deer are very easily spooked (a large lens is required!) All the videos are taken with a Panasonic FZ100 at 24x optical zoom (600mm in old terms).

This Stag is scent marking and indeed the whole area smells heavily musk….

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Red Deer Stags

It’s not often you can get near the Red Deer stags in the Park but this week they have formed a tight group and have become fairly approachable.  It seems they are having a pre-rut ‘love-in’ before they knock six bells out of each other in October.  No sign yet of their winter coats or neck manes but with a distinct autumnal feel in the air this morning it can only be a matter of time.

NORMANBY’S RED DEER RUT UNDERWAY

Great drama in the Park this morning as the Red Deer rut reaches a crescendo – I knew as soon as I walked into the ‘arena’ that things had progressed since yesterday, as I noticed lots of roughed up ground where the stags had been digging their antlers in.  The smell of the grass as I walked through was also pungently strong due to the scent marking of the Stags so…..
here is the group of Hinds which is being carefully watched over by one dominant Stag
























and here he is!

he is exceptionally loud at the moment

and very wary – you have to keep your distance hiding behind trees as they spook so easily

here is one of him ground gouging with his antlers

and here is the contender – I couldn’t understand why this this Stag wasn’t as nervous as the main herd – I kept getting closer and closer but he just didn’t seem aware of me

It was until I downloaded the photos and zoomed in that I understood why he wasn’t nervous – he couldn’t see me! his eye has been badly damaged probably by the dominant stag and the nights activity – obviously a big battle has gone on here but he isn’t giving in – although he is 300-400 metres from the main group he is still bellowing out making his presence heard

I can’t wait to see how the rut progresses – apart from these two Stags there are 3-4 others, currently keeping their distance but who knows when and who the next challenger will be.