Red deer returning to the same spot?

tomest

Well-Known Member
I know that Roe deer are territorial and have patterns regarding feeding etc, but I have been told by several people you can never rely on a red deer being anywhere. However on the road out of my village there is a couple of big fields with a small birch wood on the edge of them, bordering a river. I cycle along this road nearly every evening after shooting crows on a local farm or just being out in general, and for the past 6 or 7 days there has been a red hind coming across the river and feeding on the edge of the birch wood and through one of the fields. I normally stop and stalk into her and get quite close. She has a distinctive rip in her left ear ( I was thinking she may have come from the deer farm 15 miles away and the rip could be from a tag thats come out? ) She appeared for about 3 weeks last summer as well, same rip in the ear. Any way, I was just wondering if anyone could tell me if they have feeding patterns or not?

​Cheers
 
we have reds that return every year, they cover about 10 sq mls at least in their wondering, stags are in the woods now, the hinds are pretty spread out, only seen one yesterday with a calf at foot.
 
I wouldn't say reds are territorial, they follow the most experienced hind/stag in the group to where the best feeding spots are. If you shoot the lead animal the rest will panic and not know what to do. They could stay put or move away, it's anyone's guess so if you have a herd that frequent your land then it's because they like it there. The moral of the story is try to maintain natural behavior by hierarchy but at the same time keep the gene pool healthy but taking out older animals that have already bred a few times.... a young red stag won't think twice about sh*****g his Mum :D
 
Hinds at least are pretty much hefted to an area, though it can be quite a large area, heavy snow in winter can cause red deer to move considerable distances in search of food.

A hind in most cases will give birth in the same place or close to the same place she herself was born.

Stags also have their traditional areas breaking out at the rut and going in search of hinds, mature dominant ststags will often return to the same rutting places year after year.

Stags can and will travel long distances in search of hinds.
 
Hinds at least are pretty much hefted to an area, though it can be quite a large area, heavy snow in winter can cause red deer to move considerable distances in search of food.

A hind in most cases will give birth in the same place or close to the same place she herself was born.

Stags also have their traditional areas breaking out at the rut and going in search of hinds, mature dominant ststags will often return to the same rutting places year after year.

Stags can and will travel long distances in search of hinds.

Quite correct Sir.
The Red-stag in the photo below came onto the same Lake District mountain for 3 consecutive ruts.

He had a similar faulty antler on his left pedicle each year and I was fearful that this undesirable genetic trait would become embedded upon the DNA strings.
It is easy to introduce faults but hard to eradicate them.
HWH.
 
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