RED DEER

The Red Deer in Somiedo

The red deer (Cervus elaphus) is a slender, robust and well-proportioned animal with a majestic bearing. Its size can vary considerably — females are noticeably smaller than males and also differ in coat colour.

It is a timid and wary animal, not particularly cunning. The red deer is most active at dawn and dusk, with its least active period in the middle of the day. It is a markedly erratic species, rarely spending more than a day in the same spot, and never bothering to prepare a regular resting place.

Males usually live alone, while females and younger animals organise themselves into herds of between 3 or 4 and more than 20 individuals, typically led by an experienced female who coordinates the herd through a strict hierarchy involving only the most adult females. This matriarchal herd has separate summer and winter territories, both of which are defended against intrusion by other groups.

When moving, herds adopt a linear formation led in female groups by the dominant adult female followed by the rest in order of age; during the rut, the dominant male brings up the rear, possibly to keep the group together.

In autumn, the rut begins and the stag becomes extremely single-minded, thinking only of mating, even forgetting to eat — and so can lose a great deal of weight — while engaging in fierce combat with rival males to defend his harem or territory, and occasionally treating the females with aggression. Unlike the stag, the hind's main occupation throughout the year — including the rut — is finding food, and she only rests, normally for a few hours, in the brief period between ovulation and mating.

Dimensions:

• Nose to tail: 1.6 to 2.5 metres

• Shoulder height: 1.5 metres

Weight:

Stags can reach up to 200 kg, with hinds being considerably smaller.

Longevity:

Maximum lifespan is 20 years, with an average of 10.

Signs of red deer presence

• Droppings: Large, cylindrical and slightly elongated, though sometimes deformed. They usually taper at one end; colour is generally dark, except when the animal has ingested soil for mineral salts, when the droppings take on the colour of the earth ingested. Easy to find wherever deer are present, in meadows where they feed or inside woodland.

• Resting places: Red deer are not very particular about where they rest — you will simply find flattened grass and possibly some hair. It is worth blowing on the resting place: the hair will be longer than that of roe deer and will break in the middle when pulled from both ends without much effort.

• Shed antlers: In spring, once stags have shed their antlers, it is the ideal time to look for them, since the longer they remain on the ground the more likely they are to have been gnawed by rodents or bleached by the weather. Good places to search are meadows where they graze, tracks they use or water sources such as streams, ravines or drinking troughs, where the antler can fall off as they lower their head to drink or jump across the stream.

Tracks

Tracks show two clear hoofprints of approximately 6–7 × 8 cm in the male and 4–5 × 6 cm in the female. The front hoof print is more open than the hind. The female's print is more pointed than the male's.