The deer rut season is upon us, so I thought that I would look back through my archive to October 2012 when I photographed the rut in Richmond Park.
At the time I was living in south London, so I got up very early and hopped on a bus to make sure I got to Richmond Park for dawn. I then had a few hours to photograph the freely roaming red deer. I was lucky to see plenty of roaring stags with harems of hinds.
These photos of red deer stags were taken in the build-up to a rut. As you can probably tell, from the quality of the images, I was a good distance from the stags and all these photos are therefore cropped. I was surprised by how close some of the other photographers were getting to the stags, but I assumed that they were more experienced than me. I just wasn’t prepared to take the risk. What happened next was a bit of a shock.
The rut was taking place behind foliage at a distance when one of the stags decided to bail on it and hurtled up the hill where I was standing at a very sensible distance away! Despite being cautious and giving the rut plenty of space, I was in real danger so I decided to get out of the way as quickly as possible. I used my experience of being around horses and turned and walked slowly up the path looking at my feet. The next thing I knew, I was walking next to a large, testosterone-fuelled stag with just metres between us. I kept walking slowly while not looking at my new best friend, but I could hear his breathing and blowing and I could see his hooves not far from my feet. It seemed to take an eternity for us to reach the end of the path. I was overcome with relief when he suddenly sprang away as I turned the corner to stand (hide) next to a hedge. I thought it was over until I realised the real reason he had made off into the distance when his duelling partner, who had decided to pursue him into the woods, came careering past me. Eyes in the back of my head would have been useful.
I was unharmed but needed to sit down on a bench to get my breath back. The moral of the story? Even though I did everything correctly, I still ended up unexpectedly in the middle of the rut. So you need to stay alert and remember that no wild animal is ever ‘safe’. I treated that stag with the respect he deserved, and it got me out of what could have been a bad situation. Please stay safe if you’re out and about during rutting season.