Exmoor has herds of Red Deer, Fallow Deer and Roe Deer.
The best time to see and hear a red stag in his full rutting majesty is in October and November, the months when he is most concerned with attracting mates and intimidating love rivals.
Red Deer are often seen in large herds on the open moor and heathland of Exmoor and The Quantocks throughout the year.
The Red Deer is Britain's largest native land mam and the South West is the best place for them outside Scotland. They are a beautiful russet colour to match the autumnal beech and bracken. During the rut, the stags bellow as they seek females.
Their sight, hearing and sense of smell are excellent so it is quite difficult to get close to them.
Exmoor is unique in England in that red deer have lived here since pre-historic times; elsewhere they became extinct.
Except during the autumn rut (or mating period), red deer normally form separate stag and hind herds, though you may see mixed herds. They are mainly silent animals, but hinds will bark at intruders especially if their young are about or as a warning to the herd. During the rut in October and November you can hear the stags belling or roaring.
 Exmoor is home to Englands largest herds of wild red
deer. These roam freely over its moors and hide in its combes. The red deer is Great Britains's largest mammal.
Seeing these large wild animals, especially some of the regal stags,
is an exhilarating experience that captures the essence of the space
and freedom of Exmoor.
The West Country herd of red deer now concetrated on Exmoor
and the Quantock Hills, and area 40 miles by 20 miles, is of very ancient
origin although accurate records of history and numbers can only be traced
to about 1750. At that time the numbers were in the low hundreds - in
1818 the total is quoted as 200 - although for reasons which are now
well known the latest count has revealed about 3,000 in the area concerned,
constituting therefore the largest and certainly finest herds in England.
Numbers and distribution are of course hugely greater in the Scottish
Highlands.
Red Deer Stag and Family
Exmoor Deer
Red deer
Lone Red Deer stag
Exmoor is unique in England as red deer have lived there since prehistoric times. Elsewhere they became extinct because people killed them for meat (venison) or because they ate farmers’ crops. They have been re-introduced in some areas but Exmoor still has half of all the red deer in England. There are at least three thousand in North Devon and West Somerset, living on the moor and using the woods as a place of safety.
Red deer are the largest wild land animals in England these days. Adult stags stand 115 cm at the shoulder. Hinds are about 15 cm less. Only stags grow antlers. They shed them in April and early May and new ones start to grow immediately. As the stag gets older the antlers have more ‘points’ until they reach old age and start to ‘go back’.
Calves are born in June and July, and are usually dropped in moorland vegetation or by the edge of woodland. A single calf is normal and twins very rare. For a few days the calf will lie quietly, well-camouflaged with dappled spots on its russet coat looking like sunlight on dead bracken. Soon it is strong enough to run with its mother and join the herd. They keep together for a year or more.
Red deer eat a wide variety of food, including young shoots of heather, whortleberry, brambles, saplings and grass. They also feed on acorns, fungi, berries and ivy and can be a real pest to the farmer, raiding his fields for corn and root crops. They have eight biting teeth in front of the lower jaw, and none immediately above, biting against a hard gum pad. Footprints are called ‘slots’.
Except during the autumn rut or mating period, red deer normally form separate stag and hind herds, though you may see mixed herds or a single stag or hind and calf. They are mainly silent animals, but hinds will bark at intruders especially if their young are about or as a warning to the herd. During the rut in October and November you can hear the stags belling or roaring. Their sight, hearing and sense of smell are excellent so it is quite difficult to get close to them.
Roaring Red Deer Stag
A mixed group of stags and hinds
Between the years 1760 and 1825 the North Devon Staghounds
were kennelled on Exmoor and regular hunting was practised but in the
latter year, for reasons of finance and lack of support, the hounds were
sold to Germany and for the next 30 years there was no resident pack
of hounds, although there was some spasmodic hunting mainly by visiting
packs from other parts of England.
In 1855 a successful attempt was made to restart the pack
known as the Devon and Somerset Staghounds in new kennels at Exford where
they are still today. Almost at once the deer numbers, by then reduced
to the dangerously low level of double figures, started to recover and
by 1900 three packs were hunting a total of 10 days a week with numbers
still rising. Since that date with no interuption to the sport and with
only minor reductions in the herd during the two World Wars, the deer
and Stag hunting have flourished to the satisfaction of the whole neighbourhood.
The Red Deer in an omnivorous and voracious feeder and while
capable of living on the natural herbage of the open moor and woodland,
in winter in particular, is a serious pest to the hill farmer whose land
is interspersed with the rest of the countryside. Deer will eat as much
as yearling cattle and there are now farms "host" to as many
as 80 at one time, not counting the damage they do to the natural hedgebanks between the fields. History shows us that the farmers will tolerate this
depredation only providing that the Hunt continues to play its part in
containing numbers and providing sport for themselves, their neighbours
and visitors. When this thread is broken as was shown in the last century,
the priceless herd of the largest wild animal in Europe is doomed.
Carvings from deer antler
Exmoor Red deer
Exmoor Red deer
Exmoor Red deer
Exmoor Red deer
Exmoor, with the Scottish Highlands, is the last secure haunt of the wild red deer. They are the largest of Britain's wild mammals, holding to a stable population despite much poaching for venison and heads.
The true red of the deer's summer coat looks quite splendid, but a thicker, darker coat is grown for the winter. This is impenetrable by the worst of Exmoor's storms and bitter cold.
The stags drop their antlers annually in April, though shedding may be delayed in a cold late spring, and then the process will occur in May. When new growth begins to appear, a tissue of blood vessels covers the growing horn and feeds it. The stag is said to be 'in velvet' at this time. By late August or early September the antlers are fully renewed, the velvet having dried up. An adult stag goes through this remarkable process for four months every year of its life.
The main rut lasts three to four weeks, starting in late September. Larger stags round up as many hinds as they can hold and then defend them against other stags.The female red deer, the hinds, are ready to mate in their second year, and they generally produce one calf, usually in June. The gestation period is eight months. Calves are leggy, dappled creatures for the first three or four months of their lives after which their coats become unspotted and red like the adults.
Most active at dawn and dusk, red deer live in a range of habitats, but they are basically woodland animals, emerging from tree cover to feed in adjacent fields in the evenings.
Red Deer
- Photo supplied by Rupert Clegg www.exmoorphotogallery.com
Grasses, sedges and rushes are their most important food throughout the year, but heather and small shrubs, ferns, mushrooms, herbs, lichens and tree bark also feature in their diet. Holly is often a popular food in hard winters when there is snow on the ground.
Adult red deer have no natural predators except man, and there is ongoing controversy as to whether there is a need to cull them.
There are estimated to be about 3,500 to 4000 Red Deer living on Exmoor and they are the predominant species of deer. A mature stag is about 115 centimeters at the shoulders with the hind's tending to be smaller. Only the male stags grow antlers which he sheds in the spring. In the early autum you may hear a loud bellowing noise of the Red Deer stags
The number's of Roe Deer are estimated at only 400. Fallow deer might have been introduced to this country by the 'Romans' although ther is archaeological evidence that a deer very similar to the Fallow Deer was native to these Great Britain.
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