Field guide to the most commonly encountered mammals and birds

Here, we provide some basic information regarding commonly observed species (plus some others about which we have had queries).  

Feel free to contact us by email if you have any questions regarding species you have encountered on the site.

For more information about mammals, we recommend the Mammal Society's species hub, here. For birds, excellent resources are available from the RSPB (here) and the BTO (here).

 

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Red deer

Scientific name: Cervus elaphus

Family: Cervidae

Appearance: Adults males are 107-137cm at the shoulder and weigh 90-190kg. Adult females reach 107-122cm at the shoulder and weigh 63-120kg. The summer coat is reddish brown to brown and the winter coat is brown to grey. There are no spots on the adult coat. Stags have large, highly branched antlers and the number of branches increases with age. Antlers can have up to 16 points in wild animals. The angle between the brow tine and the main beam is near to 90o degrees.

Natural history: Well distributed in Scotland and patchily so in England. Mostly woodland and forest habitats but also open moor and hill further north. The breeding season, on rut, occurs from the end of September to November. Stags return to the hind's home range and compete for them by engaging in elaborate displays of dominance including roaring, parallel walks and fighting.  Serious injury and death can result from fighting but this only occurs between stags of similar size that cannot assess dominance by any of the other means.  The dominant stag then ensures exclusive mating with the hinds. Despite being sexually mature before their second birthday in productive woodland populations, only stags over five years old tend to mate.  In woodland populations hinds over one year old give birth to a single calf after an eight-month gestation, between mid-May to mid-July. Puberty may be delayed until three years old in hill hinds, which may give birth only once every two or three years. Some Scottish hill populations suffer heavy infant mortality at and shortly after birth and during their first winter. Lifespan can be, exceptionally, up to 18 years. In woodland red deer are largely solitary or occur as mother and calf groups. On open ground, larger single sex groups assemble, only mixing during the rut and in the Highlands of Scotland large groups may persist for most of the year. Red deer are active throughout the 24 hour period but make more use of open spaces during the hours of darkness in populations experiencing frequent disturbance. Peak times of activity are at dawn and dusk. In the Highlands of Scotland red deer use the open hills during the day and descend to lower ground during the night. (Source: https://www.bds.org.uk/index.php/advice-education/species/red-deer).

 (C) Philip Stephens (shared under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license)

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