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Progeny hovering around the older male

 

 

Slowly the “bachelor herds” of red deer have gathered. The mating period has already been past history for a couple of months, the aggressions have calmed down, even the neck muscles are not as thick as before.

Winter will be spent peacefully, but the hierarchy ladder has to be known by the herd members, see the video.

 

A little about the measures of the stags: shoulder height is quite constant, at about 1 metre 30; the body length of young stags begins at 1 metre 70; that of powerful old stags may even be half a metre more. The average weight of individuals exceeds 200 kilos.

 

As can be seen the red deer are happy to visit the feeding ground – the food need of adult animals is quite large, up to 40 kilos per day. In deer forests we can notice that bark may be ripped off from trees to a height of up to 2 meters and shoots are snatched even at 2 ½ metres.