rutting stags - time of day ?

[Herman Hellebore]

I'm fortunate enough to live near to a private deer park, which affords both access via public rights of way, and high seats. had a look around over the weekend and saw plenty of bellowing stags eyeing each other up, but no actual contact - does this tend to take place at a certain time of day - it's something i'd love to take Herman Junior along to see ?

thanks !

[Dragoner]

Early morning and late afternoon/evening are the more likely times to be seeing any stags fighting, but it doesn't happen very often. Most of the time it is just bellowing, some chasing with very little actual antler to antler contact.

[montagu]

As mentioned above, dawn and dusk are times of most activity. Fighting is not common to see but watch out for two equally-sized stags approaching each other, then walking side by side. Called 'parallel' walking' this nearly always precedes an actual fight. The two stags will suddenly turn and clash antlers together and start fighting.