Red deer in the Tatra Mountains, the rut and secrets of the king of the forest

King of the forest

One of the most admired animals at our Tatra Educational Park is the magnificent red deer (Cervus elaphus). This large and proud animal inhabits the Tatra forests, as well as those of the Podhale region and the Orava Nowy Targ peatlands. In short, there are plenty of them around Zakopane.

In the town itself you can often see hinds wandering about, but this is not a good sign, because as a wild animal, the red deer should avoid human gatherings.

What is the rut?

Summer is slowly coming to an end, and the approaching month of September marks a very special time in the life of deer, the rut. Even in our Park, located at the foot of the Tatras, you can often hear this extraordinary spectacle of nature.

What is the rut? It is the deer mating season. As we wrote in one of the previous posts, stags and hinds normally live separately. They come together only during the mating period, which falls in the second half of September and at the turn of October.

The Polish word for rut, rykowisko, takes its name from nature itself. During the rut, male deer roar very loudly, thus attracting females and showing their strength to rivals. A stag’s roar can carry for several kilometers through the forest, and since the rut usually takes place in the evening and lasts until dawn, this sound combined with the darkness of the forest sends shivers down your spine.

A stag’s roar or a bear’s growl?

Tourists often interpret a stag’s roar as the sound of a bear. It is worth remembering, however, that bears roar, or rather growl, only in situations of threat and attack, which practically never happen in the Tatras.

Walking a Tatra trail in the evening and hearing a loud roar, you can be fairly sure it is a deer. Which does not mean you should head towards such a sound. Although a stag during the rut is focused on courtship and fighting rivals, testosterone is running high during this period, and a startled stag may potentially attack. Such attacks happen extremely rarely and none have been recorded in the Tatras, but caution is still advised.

Stag battles, a spectacle of nature

If you have the chance to observe the rut from a safe distance, you may be lucky enough to witness a stag battle. Stags fight for dominance, locking antlers and remaining in such a clinch for many minutes.

Of course, the entire rut, courtship, roaring and fighting, is extremely energy consuming for deer. After fertilizing a hind, the stag moves away and tries to replenish his reserves before the approaching winter.