This superb picture of a stag with some huge antlers was taken by Tony Pierce on Farm Lane in Camber at the weekend. Several sightings were also reported on the main road through the village, and in the central car park on Saturday night, October 14. The stag was also seen on Military Road towards Rye earlier in the day, and in East Guldeford on Sunday.
Louisa Simmons from Camber saw the stag whilst driving home from Hastings Bonfire. “It must have been about 11pm when we came across cars slowing down near the golf club. He was beautiful. Absolutely magnificent. My first thought was to make sure he was safe and protect him from the traffic.”
Together with her husband and daughter, she flagged down motorists with her iPhone light until the police arrived. “We herded him off the road but didn’t get too close as it’s the rutting season and he’s a big animal, well over 6 feet tall. It was bizarre and something I’ll never see again.”
The stag has been identified as a red deer, Britain’s largest land mammal according to the British Deer Society. “When fully grown, stags weigh between 90 to 190kg and stand at around 1.07m to 1.37m tall at the shoulder. Red deer have a large head with wide spaced brown eyes. The stags’ antlers are the species’ most distinguishing feature. They are highly branched and the branches increase with age with multiple points on each antler. The red deer’s most distinguishing call is made during the breeding season or ‘rut’ when stags road and grunt loudly.”
They are also a rare sight in East Sussex, more likely to be found in the wild in the West Country and Scotland, so the thought is this stag is from a private estate. Some experts believe numbers in the wild have increased substantially since Covid because annual culls have not taken place.
You can read more about these animals at The British Deer Society.
Did you see the stag after it left Camber? Leave a comment below and as always if you see something newsworthy, do send it in to Rye News. Our email is info@ryenews.org.uk
Image Credits: Tony Pierce , British Deer Society https://bds.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Red-DD-16.pdf Permission to use comes from David MacauleyC EO BDS .
I thought I saw a Red Deer next to Rye Harbour Holiday Park lying on the shingle!
He’s most likely from Bishopsdale deer park near Benenden, the herd escaped.
I spotted a roe deer running across fields alongside sea road, Winchelsea Beach, going to the CoOp where would it come from?