A Stirring Amongst the Red Stags

As we move into fall, last night’s southerly has left behind a beautiful clear day today with a couple of inches of snow on our higher Canterbury mountains including the Southern Alps.

When this occurs it causes a stirring amongst the red stags, as they now move down into the lower country searching for the female ‘hinds’. The rut for for red deer is known as ‘the roar’ after the guttural bellow that the males make which reassembles that of a lion’s roar.

The rut will go through till the end of April with a short secondary ‘roar’ in early May.

The Fallow Bucks are also starting to move into bachelor groups and you can now find lone bucks on the edge of the does. This marks the start of the much anticipated hunting season in New Zealand as the weather cools, thoughts about the exciting hunts that lay ahead, and the snow capped South Island mountains that our animals grace.

We feel blessed to call this hunters’ paradise home and to be able to share with our clients the experience of our ‘New Zealand Safaris’.