On our recent trip to Mull we heard a lot of plaintive moaning and loud bellowing coming from the bracken covered hillsides. This was the sound of red deer stags announcing and defending their territory. The rutting season had begun with stags rounding up their harem of female deer, known as hinds. to mate with. Other stags would try and break up the harem and snatch some hinds for themselves, sometimes having to do battle for them and literally “locking horns”.
Mostly the stags were heard rather than seen but we were lucky enough to spot this one bellowing at a rival who was roaring back from over a mile away.
Later on we saw this group of deer with this young stag.
When camping at one site we were warned that “the deer are rampant” and that they had been rutting within the site at night, keeping residents awake. We were advised to stay well clear of them and be careful if wearing head torches as this could make the deer more jittery. However, we only heard the deer in the distance the nights we were there.
We got close to a group of hinds, this one was photographed through a fence. It was part of a group that retreated when they saw me with the camera poking through.
This young stag was standing at the side of the road and seemed quite happy to get its photograph taken!
Sarah's Wildlife Watch 