Red deer rut

It’s the time of year for the rut, and we can hear from being out on the hills recently that the Red deer stags are now beginning to ‘get the fever’ as some old deer stalkers say. This is a great time of year to see our largest land mammal in its prime, but be careful if decide to creep in for a closer look with the wind at your face – the stag will be otherwise engaged with his hinds until the wind suddenly switches and betrays your presence… If you go to see the stags later in the autumn you’ll come across an entirely different beast – he’ll be tired and much thinner, having spent most of his energy keeping his harem of hinds by chasing off other less dominant stags and fighting them if he has to.