Day 41 - Really Delightful Red Deer

Hey everyone, hope you've all had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend. I wanted to share a bit more news and thank everyone again for their support. I've reached 3,500 views on my blog which is fantastic, but that's not the big news. Everytime I load a post up it gets posted to my google+ profile. I'm still new to this bit, but it tells me my profile has had over 20,000 views! I thought that was an astounding number so thank you to everyone who's looked at this.

So today I thought I'd cover a creature that I always love seeing. They mainly catch me by surprise when I'm walking in woods or bounding through fields when we're driving somewhere. I'm talking about Red Deer :-)

Reed Deer (Cervus elaphus)

The photo's here are from Leighton Moss and I'll post more when I can find them as I'm sure I have some nice shots of a stag, hind and a fawn but can't find it now I want it! So what did I find out in my research about these wonderful animals:

• They are our largest land mammal

• They are reddest in summer going a bit more grey brown in the winter

• Males are stags,  females are hinds and young are fawns

• Stags can weigh up to 190kg

Grazing outside a hide at Leighton Moss

• In the Autumn stags 'rut' which is an impressive sight but hard on them. A rut is essentially a competition for the right to breed with groups of hinds. Sometimes it settled by walking around and roaring but other times it involves running and clashing antlers. This can injure or kill stags

• They like woodland but have adapted to live in open hills where there isn't much tree cover

• They are most active at dawn and dusk but will be active other times especially if they are in areas where they get disturbed.

• Red Deer have been in Britain since the end of the last ice age over 10,000 years ago.

• They are herbivores and eat grass, berries, heather, shrubs and tree shoots.

• As herbivores if their numbers get too big they can harm crops and upset farmers so in most areas the numbers are controlled. :-(

I found some great sites with more information about these beautiful creatures:

BBC Nature - Red Deer

The British Deer Society - Red Deer

Forestry Commission - Red Deer

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.