Red deer behaviour around cattle?

redape99

Was just over in Cornwall for a week and out walking on the coastal path when we encountered this sight... it seemed that the stag was either acting as a sheepdog/protector for the herd of cattle or maybe thought that the cows/bull were part of his hareem! At one point a young cow and the bull were bashing heads, pushing each other around and moving away from the herd and it looked to me like the stag deliberately went over to them and forced them back into the herd. Anyone ever see this kind of behaviour?


Coastal Path From Porthgwarra to Nanjizal by redape99_, on Flickr

recedite

Are these farmed deer or wild deer? Just wondering if the deer and the cattle could have been raised together?

Deub

Is there another on the right hand side?

beefburrito

That's what I call a noble looking stag.....

redape99

There was some loose fencing around but it was mostly openish moorland and cliff-edge landscape at Land's End... maybe they could be farmed deer, not sure but I didn't notice any tags on them. There was a stag and another deer I'm presuming was a doe. Here's another pic of the bull and a young one bashing heads before the stag stepped in to break it up!


Coastal Path From Porthgwarra to Nanjizal by redape99_, on Flickr

recedite

Just googled it and it seems there is an increasing population of wild red deer in Cornwall, but as in Wicklow they are red/sika hybrids.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-17176421
Playing havoc with the tea plantations there apparently. I didn't know they had either there, but it just shows how little I knew about Cornwall

If deer are not hunted they can adopt some behaviours which may seem odd.
I doubt the red deer in Scotland would be as laid back as those.

The fallow deer in the Phoenix Park Dublin have become ridiculously tame, taking food out of peoples hands these days. I met a Japanese person who had been out there feeding them, and not knowing the English word for deer, was calling them sika (pronounced shika). I happened to mention that they were actually fallow deer, which led to a lot of confusion for a while until I eventually realised that sika is just the japanese word for "deer", and they generally only have the one type in Japan. So there's an interesting little fact for the day.

Floki

It seems to me to be a group of all male cattle there and the other deer looks like a young stag.
So either those two deer were raised and purposely put there by the farmer or the two deer broke in and have formed a bachelor herd with the cattle.

fryup

a Bull v Stag

who'd win ?

recedite

Floki wrote: »

So either those two deer were raised and purposely put there by the farmer or the two deer broke in and have formed a bachelor herd with the cattle.

The latter explanation seems likely, and with the time of year, and all the hormones, the young stags could be stoking up a bit of laddish behaviour with the bulls.

redape99

I like the "Stag Party" explanation best... let's go with that!

recedite

fryup wrote: »

a Bull v Stag

who'd win ?

Bull is stronger but the stag is quicker.
It would be like McGregor V Mayweather, and we know how that ended

Kamili

recedite wrote: »

e.
I met a Japanese person who had been out there feeding them, and not knowing the English word for deer, was calling them sika (pronounced shika). I happened to mention that they were actually fallow deer, which led to a lot of confusion for a while until I eventually realised that sika is just the japanese word for "deer", and they generally only have the one type in Japan. So there's an interesting little fact for the day.

Deer in Japan are seen as sacred animals, and often times are fed and nurtured by locals and tourists in return for a bow from the deer.

sorry off topic slightly.

philstar

recedite wrote: »

Bull is stronger but the stag is quicker.
It would be like McGregor V Mayweather, and we know how that ended

on a serious note - has it ever been documented that bulls and stags go into battle?

recedite

philstar wrote: »

on a serious note - has it ever been documented that bulls and stags go into battle?

I doubt it, they would have no reason to. The real enemy of these stags is the big stag that has all the females in his harem. Until the day they feel able to challenge him they will just mess around with each other, practicing their sparring technique.