Studley Royal: Ready for the Rut

It’s nearly rutting season.  Stags begin to gather their harems, display their fine antlers.  In a week or two … let battle commence.

 

My contribution to Six Word Saturday.

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

41 thoughts on “Studley Royal: Ready for the Rut”

  2. I just saw a documentary on TV. Apparently rutting really takes its toll on the winning stags. They lose weight and are plain exhausted at the end of it. Great gallery.

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    1. I’m not surprised. It’s a vicious business. These shots were all zoomed to within an inch of their lives, so I’m surprised that, on the whole, they’ve worked

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  4. Deer are so lovely with such beautiful eyes. We have to be so careful at dusk because they cross the road without a care in the world and no apparent sense of danger. On the way to the cinema a few months ago there were a dozen gathered at the side of the road, these were very much alive but sadly we see dead ones as well.

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      1. There are certainly deer around us roaming wild. I occasionally catch a glimpse – and see regular evidence of their presence in the garden because they have a fondness for rose buds! We must have herds on the various country estates – maybe on the moor? Now I’m thinking about it, I realise how very ignorant I am of deer populations here so have done a little research. A few red deer and fallow, but roe the largest group – 500+.

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  7. Jeez–everybody else already used the word “majestic” and I thought that was going to be my word!! They really are superb-looking creatures–we don’t have them here and I love seeing the great photos of them!

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      1. That is the wonderful thing about animals, they don’t obsess about looks, or material objects, it is only about survival and skills at finding food and providing for the group. But they do fight for supremacy!

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  10. I don’t know much about deer and found your photos very interesting. I looked up the deer at Studley Royal deer park and was surprised to see there are three kinds there. Am I right that both the Red Deer and the Fallow Deer feature in your photos?

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    1. You are. But there’s a Sika stag too. He’s the fellow with his back to you, a little darker than the others and not a hint of russet. So you only get to see deer if you travel to Europe, then? Though with all that wildlife of yours, you can scarcely complain.

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  11. Oh thanks for identifying the Sika. I think there are deer in both Asia and North America, but I don’t know about South America? Here we have antelope (though many people insist on calling them deer).

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  12. wonderful photos of these m——c creatures! I don’t know much at all about deer or antelope but I vaguely know the words of Home on the Range and the well-known line ‘where the deer and the antelope play’. I had a quick google and find that there are indeed deer in the USA but that it’s quite a complex story. There’s a breed from Alaska that are called Sitka deer – might that be the same as Sika? But then there’s another conundrum, for me anyway, because one of the main obvious differences between deer and antelope is that the former have branched horns and the latter don’t. But the darker fellow in your photograph doesn’t have branched horns. Is he an antelope? And then there’s the question of reindeer – are they in Alaska too? Other species of deer are not suited to really cold climates because of their thin legs, Mr. Google says. Now I’m eager for more instruction but as this has taken a lot of space and instruction might take more, I won’t complain if I don’t get it.

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    1. The ‘darker fellow’ is the Sika, and originates in Asia – Japan and China: wheres the Sitka comes from Alaska as you say. I already know a lot more than I did this time yesterday because of all the comments, but as I started off from an extremely low base, that is unsurprising.

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      1. Best to stay out of the way I imagine those antlers are a powerful weapon! We are being dive-bombed every time we go into our back garden at present by a pair of nesting wagtails (little black and white birds native to Australia) and that is scary enough!

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      3. It’s quite frightening – we love that the birds are nesting in our garden (we never got so many when our old cat was still alive!) but you have to watch out especially if the dad is around he’s rather fierce!!

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  15. Gorgeous photos and happily they’re safe in a protected park. I can see they are considered an attraction with all that antler stuff going on unlike the weedy muntjacs that are often considered a pest in rural Suffolk.

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  16. There are a lot of accidents here where cars hit deer during the Fall. I think that deer are more likely to run across the road during rutting season.

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