Caithness Map :: Links to Site Map Paying too much for broadband? Move to PlusNet broadband and save£££s. Free setup now available - terms apply. PlusNet broadband.  
Results 1 to 10 of 10

Thread: Red Deer

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Location
    Lybster
    Posts
    679

    Default Red Deer

    Found in larger Herds than the Roe deer and also a much larger animal.


  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Location
    Lybster
    Posts
    679

    Default Red Deer Rumster 18-2-09

    This evening at 5pm while travelling the Rumster Road from the A9 across to Lybster i came across 60+ Red deer.
    The herd was mostly young stags with just a couple of mature males and about a dozen females.
    I've seen Red deer on many occasions on this stretch of road but never in any thing like these numbers.
    Needless to say i left a camera at work and the other at home.

    Colin

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Thurso
    Posts
    2,595

    Default

    thats a shame you never had your camera with you Seabird. Fantastic pic of the stag, very noble.

    When we came up the road a fortnight ago we saw lots of herds of red deer wandering around the hills, but to see that amount so close up must have been magical and frustrating at not having your camera!!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Caithness
    Posts
    236

    Default Picture

    What a lovely picture above, they sure are magnificent animals.... I have always found them great to look at and to watch....

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Location
    Lybster
    Posts
    679

    Default

    I took that one from the car window on a trip across Forsinard last summer, they were in their hundreds. This one stepped out of the woods at just the right moment and I had the camera ready

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    In my burrow
    Posts
    2,763

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Seabird View Post
    This evening at 5pm while travelling the Rumster Road from the A9 across to Lybster i came across 60+ Red deer.
    The herd was mostly young stags with just a couple of mature males and about a dozen females.
    I've seen Red deer on many occasions on this stretch of road but never in any thing like these numbers.
    Needless to say i left a camera at work and the other at home.

    Colin
    Hi Colin I travelled down the causewaymire on Sunday the 15th and just across from where they cut the peats there were lots of them,must have been around 50 at least!Great sight to see! x
    The nice thing about living in a small place is that if you dont know what you are doing....there's always somebody who does,or thinks they do! x

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Scrabster
    Posts
    1,166

    Default

    Dont think I have seen that photo before. Nice one.
    Away with the birds

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    High above Loch Ness
    Posts
    676

    Default

    I don't think I've ever seen a "herd" of roe deer.

  9. #9

    Default Red Deer

    Roe deer will not be found in herds. At the very most one might observe a family group comprising a buck, doe and fawn(s).

    All deer, other than caribou/reindeer are essentially forest animals. Red deer adapted to life on the open hill over centuries in the face of a gradual demise of large tracts of woodland. Roe deer, by contrast, remain forest dwellers.

    When the opportunity arises (e.g. when afforested areas attain maturity so that browsing deer no longer pose a threat to growing timber) Red deer will return to their natural habitat of woodland.

    Magnificant as it may be to catch a glimpse of a herd, the growth in population of Red deer during the last 25 years has had an unfortunate impact on attempts throughout the Highlands to encourage natural regeneration of native pine and birch woods - which in turn would lead to enhanced biodiversity. Further to that, previously well managed herds on Highland estates ensured a very healthy stock of beasts. Given the decline in the number of professional stalkers and appropriate management of deer forests (not necessarily a wooded area), the overall health of Scotland's Red deer stock is in question.

    Red deer, other than when calves (when Golden eagles and foxes can strike), have no natural predators - only Man. Owing to our destruction of prey species such as the wolf and lynx, we have had to manage the deer populations. That's what happens when we upset the balance of nature - one species can so easily dominate at the expense of others.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Location
    Lybster
    Posts
    679

    Default

    you are correct in saying that Roe deer don't gather in herds.
    I was using the dictionary meaning of herd "group of animals feeding and living together"
    It might have been better to use the words "Smaller Groups".
    I did observe a group at Loch May, it consisted of 2 males and 6 females.

    Colin

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •