Warning over stag dangers as rut season begins

THE public is being warned not to come between a stag and his hinds this season as the rut begins for the country’s largest wild mammal, the red deer.

Stags weighing up to 200kg, with fully branched antlers, are gathering their harem of hinds in the uplands of the Killarney National Park and their bellows are already beginning across the lakes for the rutting or mating season.

The rut peaks in October and has become an attraction for walkers and the public who arrive to listen to the bellows of the red-coated stags and the clash of their antlers with rivals.