Red deer

Latin name

Cervus elaphus

Class

Mammals

Group

Deer

The Red deer at a glance

The binomial name is derived from both the Latin (Cervus) and Greek (elaphus) for “deer”. At least ten subspecies have been proposed, although subspecific validity remains uncertain.

Size: Adults are usually between 1.7 and 2.6 m (5.5 to 8.5 ft.) long, and a full-grown stag stands about 1.2 m (4ft) at the shoulder, while hinds are slightly smaller at 1 m. The weight varies enormously with age and season; wild animals can range anywhere from 90 to 200 kg (200-440 lbs), while some park stags supplied with robust winter feeding may approach 300 kg (660 lbs). Interestingly, in The Whitehead Encyclopedia of Deer, published in 1993, the author gives 300 kg as the upper range for Eastern European Red deer. Females are typically weigh up to ca. 110 kg (240 lbs). Scottish hill stags tend to be smaller than those in English broadleaf woodland and, broadly speaking, lowland animals are larger than those resident in upland habitats.

Colour: A short red-brown summer coat gives way to a longer grey-brown winter coat during the late summer. The head/face may be paler (especially in winter coat) and a paler streak around the eyes and/or nose is sometimes evident. The rump patch is paler in both summer and winter coats, yellowish to cream in colour or sometimes appearing gingery during the winter; there's no markings around the patch or on the tail (cf. Sika and Fallow). Males grow a mane during winter that may be a little darker than the rest of the coat. White individuals are rare, although there are some captive herds in Europe and an apparently albino stag in velvet was photographed on Exmoor (UK) in July 2024. Melanism (very dark/black colouration) appears exceptionally rare - I'm aware of only two confirmed reports in the wild, both from New Zealand.

Distribution & population: A widely distributed species in the Palaearctic from Ireland in the west throughout Europe and Manchuria, and North America (where they're called wapiti) in the east. Introduced to New Zealand and Australia. A native species in Britain and Ireland where they are now reasonably widely distributed, albeit fragmented. Red deer are most abundant and widely distributed across Scotland, particularly in the Scottish Highlands and some island, although there are significant populations in the West Country, Hampshire, East Anglia, the Peak District, across Yorkshire, and the Lake District in England. The main Red deer range in Ireland appears to be the Torc, Cores, and Mangerton Mountains, along with some significant herds in the lowland areas of the National Park in Killarney, County Kerry. The Mammal Society estimated the UK Red population to be ca. 346,000 animals in 2018, but reliable data are lacking and the true figure is likely to be much higher (perhaps 500,000+). The population appears to be growing in both number (ca. 0.3% per year) and distribution.

Longevity: Maximum age limit is considered to be ca. 30 years (in captivity), but records of wild individuals living beyond 13 to 15 years are rare and few probably live beyond 9 years.

Sexing: During much of year males can be identified by presence of antlers, or at least the nodules (called pedicles) on the skull from which the antlers grow. In the winter, adult males grow a shaggy mane, the girth of the neck increases, and there is an evidence prepuce (furred penis sheath) often stained. Females lack antlers and tend to be of slighter (less muscular) build than males. Females with young present with a distended udder between May and July. Males are called stags, females hinds, and young calves.

Antler Cycle: Antlers are cast between March and mid-May, with the peak time being mid-March to mid-April. Older males typically cast earlier (and complete regrowth) earlier than younger animals. Antler growth is very rapid and occurs during late spring and summer. During growth, the blood supply is supplemented by a furry skin called velvet that covers the antler. The velvet is shed during late July and early August in preparation for the rut.

Activity: Primarily a crepuscular - i.e., most active feeding is done around dusk and dawn - although there may be periods of activity throughout both the day and night, particularly during the late spring (for pregnant females) and late summer (for males putting on condition for the rut). Much of the daytime is spent resting in cover or wallowing, such that of the 5-9 feeding bouts per 24 hrs, 2-3 are likely to be during daytime. There is some evidence of increasing nocturnality in heavily persecuted/disturbed populations. Feeding is often undertaken in open areas during day, the deer moving to woodland at night, but this is very variable with habitat, season, and disturbance.

Habitat: Considered primarily a species of woodland, particularly river valleys, although they're an adaptable species that can accommodate open, grassy hillsides, meadows, heathland/moorland, and montane habitats. In the UK, most Red deer are found in coniferous woodland and (often adjacent) dwarf shrub heath, together the habitats accounting for ca. 65% of the population. In Scotland during summer the primary daytime habitat is high ground with new heather growth, the animals moving to lower ground during winter. In these hill populations, hinds may monopolize grassy area during the winter, stags being confined to nutrient-poorer heather regions.

Territory/Home Range: Non-territorial, although stags will aggressively defend groups of females (and thus the areas on which they graze) from other males for a few weeks during rutting (breeding) season. Indeed, females are more likely than males to use a set range throughout the year, albeit using different area more frequently/intensively according to feeding and sheltering opportunities, while stags may have distinct rutting and non-rutting ranges. One study in the Scottish highlands found males covered ca. 800 ha (2,000 acres) and females 400 ha (988 acres) outside the rut, while on Exmoor hinds ranged between 200 and 700 ha (500-1,700 acres) and stags 1,000-1,200 ha (2,500-3,000 acres). A rutting stand may be only a few tens of metres across or cover a hillside, depending on the quality of the habitat, and on Rum, researchers found that hinds reduced their (day) range from ca. 45 ha (111 acres) during August to ca. 15 ha (37 acres) at the peak of the rut. Broadly speaking, home range outside of the rut varies according to habitat, generally being significantly smaller in woodland/farmland than in open moorland/hillsides.

Diet: Opportunistic omnivores classified as “intermediate feeders”. The diet includes primarily grasses at all times of year, but with supplementation that includes heather, lichen, shoots, bark (esp. willow, rowan, and Norway spruce), sedges, rushes, leaves, herbs, buds, nuts, fungi, ferns, fruit, and berries. Crops may be taken in agricultural landscapes of lowland Britain, while shrubs and seaweed may be of importance to some populations during autumn and winter. One report I'm aware of from Exmoor of a stag using its antlers to remove a bird feeder in a garden to access the seed, and sporadic reports of carnivory (e.g., consumption of eggs and/or small ground nesting birds) but this doesn't appear common. Hinds more than double food intake during early lactation.

Reproduction: Rutting season typically covers late September to early November in the Northern Hemisphere, with a peak during the first half of October, although matings may continue into December or even January if there are un-mated hinds (esp. in deer parks) and stags may continue to show interest in hinds into February. The specific timing of the rut is heavily dependent on prevailing weather, temperature in particular, and can be delayed by mild starts to autumn. Hinds move to good (often traditional/predictable) grazing areas in their home range during the early autumn. Stags follow and establish small “stands” around them from which other stags are evicted and to which more hinds may be attracted during the rut. Each stag will try and keep his harem of hinds on the stand until they come into season, at which point he will mate with them. While guarding hinds, stags issue a repeated rutting call (sometimes called “roaring” or “bolving”) through the day and night; a low frequency vocalisation ending in pulses in Europe and “bugle” whistle in North America - click below to listen. Bolving seems to attract hinds and help stimulate oestrous, as well as acting as a warning to challenging males. Females cycles every 18 days until mated and, come the end of the season, unmated hinds may try an solicit a mating from the stag by circling and rubbing herself against him. A single calf (twins appear extremely rare) is produced after an 8 month gestation, typically during, June in the Northern Hemisphere although there's some suggestion the birthing season may be protracting in response to climate change; hinds may start to drop in May and very young calves have been found in late September. The calf is suckled for around 6 to 9 months and is independent at about 1 year old. Stags are fecund at 1 year old, although most won't hold a harem until their fifth year, while hinds typically won't produce a calf until they exceed 55 kg (120 lbs).

A Red deer (Cervus elaphus) stag roaring (bolving) during the rut in the UK. - Credit: Marc Baldwin

The high-pitched rutting call of North American Red deer (Cervus canadensis), aka the wapiti or elk. This call often ends with a "jerking cough" and is typically called a "bugle". - Credit: Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation

Behaviour and Sociality: Sexes live apart during most of year, although younger stags may sometimes mix with female groups. Hinds live in predominantly familial groups for most of the year, leaving only briefly during the early summer to give birth. Hierarchical system has been documented among hinds - i.e., a group consists of a single dominant hind with her yearlings (dependent offspring) and mature daughters from previous years, possibly with their own offspring. Group sizes in productive habitat are larger as the ranges of mature daughters and offspring from previous years coalesce. Males spend most of the year either solitarily or in small (unstable) bachelor groups of unrelated individuals that coalesce and disperse through the year. Larger stags in bachelor groups are dominant over smaller animals, although the hierarchy can reverse as antlers are lost during the spring. Groups may merge in open areas to feed, particularly where resources are concentrated, but fragment again into smaller family units when returning to cover. Group size varies considerably with habitat and local deer management; 6-10 seems typical, but 40+ have been recorded in the Highlands, and winter supplementary feeding has been known to attract several hundred animals. Males become antisocial during breeding season, engaging in roaring contests, parallel walking, and locking of antlers (“clashing”), while disputes among stags in velvet, and between hinds, involve rearing on the hind legs and kicking with front feet. Males and females known to use mud wallows, particularly during hot weather.

Threats: The IUCN have assessed the species as “Least Concern” both in the UK and globally. Reds are hunted for sport in many parts of their range, although, to the exclusion of deer stalking, this seems to have little impact on the overall population in the UK. Stag hunting with hounds was made illegal in the UK in 2004 with the passing of The Hunting Act, although activities continue in some areas despite polls suggesting very little public support for hunting. Some reports suggest an increase in poaching in recent years, and some are killed on Britain's roads each year; people are sometimes also injured or worse in such collisions. Reds sometimes come into conflict with forestry and/or private land owners because of the damage they can do to trees, cereal crops, and flowers. Being large animals, they can also cause trampling damage, which causes conflict and has necessitated culls on reserves in East Anglia in recent years. In North America, along with road collisions, Reds compete for winter grazing with cattle outside national parks such as Yellowstone, and there have been some similar complaints from livestock farmers in Britain (e.g., New Forest and Exmoor). Possibly the most significant threat to the species as a whole in Britain is hybridization with Japanese Sika deer; the two species can cross-breed to produce fertile offspring, diluting both genomes, although the data are inconclusive on the how widespread Sika genes are in the Red gene pool. Anatomical data suggest hybrids are intermediate of the parent species—i.e., intermediate body weight, jaw length, incisor arcade breadth, etc.—and that this may result in a different ecology. From the data available to-date, it appears mostly to be Sika stags breeding with Red hinds.

Red deer in detail

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Bibliography

A Highland Deer Herd and its Habitat - by Jos Milner; Jim Alexander; Cy Griffin
Red Lion House -- 2002 -- ISBN: 978-0951263150

A Life for Deer: A deer vet tells their story and his - by John Fletcher
Victor Gollancz Books -- 2000 -- ISBN: 978-0575070905

Atlas of the Mammals of Great Britain & Northern Ireland - by Multiple Contributors
Pelagic Publishing -- 2020 -- ISBN: 978-1784272043

Britain’s Mammals 2018: The Mammal Society’s Guide to their Population & Conservation Status - by Multiple Contributors
The Mammal Society -- 2020 -- ISBN: 978-0993567339

Collins Field Guide: Mammals of Britain and Europe - by David MacDonald and Priscilla Barrett
HarperCollins Publishers -- 1993 -- ISBN: 978-0002197793

Deer - by Norma Chapman
Whittet Books -- 1991 -- ISBN: 978-1873580356

Deer - by Raymond Chaplin
Blandford Press -- 1977 -- ISBN: 978-0713707960

Deer - by John Fletcher
Reakton Books -- 2014 -- ISBN: 978-1780230887

Deer of Britain and Ireland: Their origins and distribution - by Peter Carne
Swan-Hill Press -- 2000 -- ISBN: 978-1840370911

Deer of the World: Their Evolution, Behavior, and Ecology - by Valerius Geist
Stackpole Books -- 1998 -- ISBN: 978-0811704960

Deer Watch: A Field Guide (Revised Edition) - by Richard Prior
Swan-Hill Press -- 2007 -- ISBN: 978-1846890130

Deer: Law & Liabilities (2nd Edition) - by Charlie Parkes; John Thornley
Quiller -- 2008 -- ISBN: 978-1846890475

Fauna Britannica - by Stefan Buczacki
Hamlyn Publishing -- 2002 -- ISBN: 978-0600598671

Gardens and Deer: A guide to damage limitation - by Charles Coles
Swan-Hill Press -- 1997 -- ISBN: 978-1853109652

Grazing in Temperate Ecosystems: Large Herbivores and the Ecology of the New Forest - by Rod Putman
Croom Helm -- 1986 -- ISBN: 978-0881920710

Highland Deer Forest - by Lea MacNally
J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. -- 1970 -- ISBN: 978-0330234665

Kia – A Study of Red Deer - by Ian Alcock
Swan-Hill Press -- 1999 -- ISBN: 978-1840370317

Living with Deer - by Richard Prior
Andre Deusch -- 1965 -- ISBN: 978-0727401175

Mammals of the British Isles: Handbook, 4th Edition - by Stephen Harris and Derek Yalden (eds)
The Mammal Society -- 2008 -- ISBN: 978-0906282656
The natural history "bible" covering all British mammals with detailed coverage of their biology, behaviour, ecology and taxonomy written by experts in the field and referenced to the primary literature.

Mind the Gap: Postglacial colonization of Ireland - by John L. Davenport, David P. Sleeman & Peter C. Woodman (eds)
Irish Naturalists' Journal -- 2008

Nick Baker’s British Wildlife: A month by month guide - by Nick Baker
New Holland Publishers -- 2003 -- ISBN: 978-1845171131

Red Deer: Behaviour and Ecology of Two Sexes - by Tim Clutton-Brock; Fiona Guinness; Steve Albon
Edinburgh University Press -- 1982 -- ISBN: 978-0226110578

Scottish Red Deer and their Conservation - by Victor Lowe
Hayloft Publishing -- 2014 -- ISBN: 978-1904524939

The British Mammal Guide - by Steve Evans & Paul Wetton
Isabelline Films -- 2015 -- ISBN: N/A

The Deer of Great Britain & Ireland: An account of their history, status and distribution - by Peter Carne
G. Kenneth Whitehead -- 1964 -- ISBN: None

The Encyclopaedia of Mammals - by David MacDonald (ed.)
Brown Reference Group -- 2006 -- ISBN: 978-0199206087

The Mammals of the Palaearctic Region: A Taxonomic Review - by Gordon Corbet
Cornell University Press -- 1978 -- ISBN: 978-0801411717

The Natural History of Deer - by Rory Putman
Christopher Helm -- 1988 -- ISBN: 978-0801422836

The New Amateur Naturalist - by Nick Baker
HarperCollins Publishers -- 2004 -- ISBN: 978-0007157310

The Story of a Red-Deer - by William Fortescue
MacMillian and Co. -- 1897 -- ISBN: 978-1507576755

The Watcher and the Red Deer - by Richard Perry
The Country Book Club -- 1972 -- ISBN: 978-0715353851

UK Mammals: Species Status & Population Trends - by The Tracking Mammals Partnership
JNCC/TMP -- 2005 -- ISBN: 978-1861075680

Wild Animals of Britain & Europe - by Helga Hofmann
HarperCollins Publishers -- 1995 -- ISBN: 978-0007627271

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Links

• British Deer Parks and Farmers Association
• British Deer Society
• Deer Collisions Project
• Deer Initiative
• Isle of Rum Red Deer Project