Graham Workman column: stuck in a rut

Dad and Lad's Red Stag Rut Adventure!!

We went in search of bellowing stags, clashing antlers and majestic posturing - and boy did we find some!!

Took literally hundreds of shots and Marcus got some absolutely stunning video. We must have walked 10 miles carrying camera, large 800mm prime lenses, tripods, binoculars and several more lenses and filters - was it worth putting the Imperial Carcass through hell - oh yes!! It ended up being an incredible day with the deer, both Red and Fallow doing exactly what we had hoped they’d do!

The Red Deer Rut is one of the most exiting Autumn events and one that always brings some fantastic photo opportunities and our visit to Tatton Park was a superb Dad and Lad Adventure. The large (in fact the largest of our terrestrial mammals) Stags were going at it hammer and tongs, the sound of clashing antlers as two enormous beasts clashed over who would have the harem.

Rutting stags, in particular, are pumped up with testosterone, and you could be putting yourself at risk by getting too close for a photograph. One really large stag decided that we were too close to his females and started a very concerning fast walk towards us. It was time to put a greater distance between us and the stag - which we did – quickly so not to give him any room to see us as a threat to his harem!

Fatalities are rare, the last death by a Red Deer Stag was in 2004 when a Yorkshire farmer was gored to death by a very large stag which was the dominant male in the farmers small herd, Injuries are much more common, some very serious. A jogger had been seriously gored here at Tatton a few years ago and the Tatton %K had been cancelled due to one stag in particular and we thought we had a guud idea which one that would be! We definitely kept our distance as it's madness to try and push your luck just for a photograph.

A mature stag may stand four feet tall at the shoulder and weigh up to 200kg. Stags develop a large set of antlers that grow with age. Starting with just two points, the antlers steadily develop more branches, reaching up to 16 in most cases. These antlers are shed and regrown every year. Females (hinds) lack antlers and are more lightly built than males. All of the UK’s six species grow antlers except the Chinese water deer. Red deer grow the largest antlers, which can reach an impressive three feet in length and have 15 points or more. Red Deer stag antlers are made of bone and shed and regrown each year. When they first emerge, antlers are covered in a soft, hairy-like material known as velvet. This provides oxygen and nutrients to the bone, helping it to grow rapidly. Velvet is eventually shed by rubbing the antlers against a tree. By this point the antlers have completely hardened and are ready to be used in fights between deer.