Throughout October, some of the Peak District’s resident red deer put on a show of machismo as stags compete for females through aggressive displays of roaring and head-locking with their antlers. Peter Wigglesworth shares an insight into ‘rutting season’.
Red deer are magnificent animals and, at this time of year, bring a special magic to Peak District moorland.
From late September to early November, the Eastern Moors – on the border of Derbyshire and South Yorkshire – echo to the sounds of rutting season as stags compete to mate with females, known as hinds.
Stags bellow to each other to keep other stags away or as a way of exerting their hold on a group of females. In Derbyshire, it is known as bolving. It is truly a magnificent thing to hear and puts a shiver down your spine.
I have heard lions in the Serengeti calling to each other and I place the bolving red deer stags of the Eastern Moors on the same level, in terms of raw, primeval excitement.
Red deer are the United Kingdom’s largest deer and the fourth largest on earth, behind moose, elk and sambar deer.
Stags are typically 1.75m to 2.5m in length and weigh between160kg and 240 kg. Hinds measure from 1.6m to 2.1m in length and weigh from 120kg to 170 kg.
In the 1960s they were largely confined to Scotland, Cumbria, Devon, Somerset and the New Forest. Today they are widespread across the country and in Derbyshire we are very lucky to have a healthy population of red deer on the Eastern Moors.
It is thought that our red deer originated from three deer on Big Moor in the 1980s. By the early 2000s their population had grown to around 30 or 40 deer. Today there are about 250 red deer on the Eastern Moors and this thriving population is controlled to maintain both a healthy moorland environment and a healthy deer population.
Mating or rutting takes place in the autumn, when the deer are in peak condition and the stags are highly charged with testosterone. Their antlers, which are cast off and regrown every year, are rock hard, their coats are long and they may have dark patches signifying their sexual maturity.
At rutting time, great battles occur between stags as they fight for dominance over females. Sometimes it doesn’t work – I have witnessed stags fighting while a smaller, younger stag sneaks in to mate with the hinds while the dominant stag is too busy fighting.
The offspring of red deer are called calves and these are born, singularly, in late spring to early summer, after a gestation period of between 240 – 262 days. Hinds do not bear their first calves until they are two to three years old.
Red deer can live up to 20 years and remain in single sex groups for most of the year.
If you are out on the Eastern Moors in the rutting season, when the stags are bolving and trying to round up a harem of hinds, give the deer plenty of respect and keep your distance. Red deer stags are very large animals and need to be taken seriously when you are out on the moors.
I have a rule of thumb not to disturb and frighten the deer if I am taking photos. I use a long lens and stealth.
Never be tempted to take a “selfie” with the deer and always work out your escape route if a stag were to charge you. Dogs should be kept on a leash and under close control to prevent an incident with a deer.
Enjoy your red deer, we are lucky to have them on the Eastern Moors.