Rutting... in February?

[Queen bee]

I often see a group of red deer in the fields over the valley from ours. Today, I counted 19 -- at least 5 of which were stags, fully antlered. Things started to get interesting when the males began to chase one of them away. Two became distracted and started fighting one another, with a bit of head bashing and parallel walking, and the male they were chasing sneaked back to the females. It wasn't particularly energetic (no roaring or anything), and one went off to fight another at one point. The females looked rather bored XD. But still... is it normal for them to still be rutting at this time of year? My mum wondered whether it was young males practicing, but they all had a pretty impressive set of antlers.

[Deer Stalker]

Hi Queen Bee.

Probably the stags settling hierachical disputes amongst themselves. Although if one of the hinds hadn't been covered during the rut, they can come into season every month until they are mated, this can set the stags off again a bit.

[Queen bee]

Hmm, interesting! Thanks, DS