Rum Deer Research

Small 10x10cm quadrat on the vegetation, with the vegetation cage behind

Beautiful day for our last vegetation sampling round of 2025, although cold on the fingertips as we have had a light frost overnight

Addressing biases in sliding window analysis gives new insight into the response of parturition date to weather in a wild mammal Animal breeding phenology in temperate and high latitude regions is often predicted by weather variables, such as temperature. Much work on this topic has focused on taxonomic groups that employ adap...

nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
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... the flashes are painted brown to be less intrusive for the mum when she comes back to the calf. It soon washes off, or is licked off to reveal the vibrant colours beneath

Little rectangles of coloured material that goes behind the tag in the ears of the deers, called flashed

We are also going through all the flashes we have in stock. These sit behind the tag at the back of the ears of the deers.

Darvic collars being made. Strips of darvic are made round in hot water before adding buckles abd painting on the pattern

A strip of blue darvic is made round in a pan of hot water using a jar as a template

With fieldwork mostly finished for the year we are getting ready for calving 2026 by making some new darvic collars for female calves

Hind Bauple is very tame, looking at the camera from 2 metres.

Currently we are faecal sampling and I like to get close to the animals. Bauple, however, doesn't care to follow the rules and we are still waiting for her to perform.

Stag Coypu19 looking at the camera, his antlers still covered in protective velvet. Picture taken in during summer 2025.

Stag Longbeys standing looking at the camera. Hinds Murre, feeding, and Pipit lying are in the background.

And finally... Coypu19, on the left earlier seen in the year still in velvet was in the study area during the rut. His father is Longbeys is on the right. Their antlers are very similar in shape.

Stags Eddy16 and Lalo fight, antlers locked, their heads twisted hard to the left as they try to gain better purchase against one another

Stags Eddy16 and Lalo have parted and are cautiously moving away from one another. Eddy16 looks like he could fight more, Lalo is panting and looks exhausted.

2 of 2. Eddy 16 and Lalo are evenly matched and after two minutes agree to disagree, moving cautiously away from one another.

Two stags fight, their antlers locked. Eddy16 is on the left extending his body in full power. Lalo on the right is being pushed backwards, and only has one back leg on the ground

Eddy16 and Lalo continue fighting, antlers locked. The tip of one of Eddy16's antler tines is so close to Lalo's eye. It shows how easily eye injuries occur.

1 of 2. Eddy16, left and Lalo right (in both pictures) fight. Eddy16 seems to have the upper hand as he pushes Lalo back, one tip of an antler tine so very close to Lalo's eye.

Stag Herbert stands looking intently left to his hinds that are out of shot. It is raining.

This is a young incoming stag that we have not seen before, so he has been named Herbert and we estimate him to be about 5 years old. He has been very enthusiastic around the hinds.

Extreme close up of stag Hodges, showing the natural slits of the top sides of his ears that help us identify him.

Extreme close up of stag Hodges as he looks intently to the right, keeping watch on everything that is happening.

Hodges, another incoming rutter, did very well early on in the rut. The nicks in his ears show where he has been injured in previous battles, and are also great for identification.

Stag Gorgonzola19 stands looking at the camera.

Stag Gorgonzola 20 stands looking at the camera

Here is another set of brothers, Gorgonzola19, left and Gorgonzola20. These boys, along with their brother from 2022, are all that remain of our once illustrious Cheese family.

Stag Scottie is looking straight at the camera showing off his wide antlers and pale eyes. Hind Saba is ruminating unconcernedly behind him.

Scottie has been coming back to the study area to rut for 5 years now. As an incoming rutter, we don't know where he lives for the rest of the year. He is very distinctive with his wide antlers and pale eyes. Saba is ruminating behind him.

Stag Eddy15 standing, yearling Bolly24 is in the corner of the picture

Stag Eddy16 lies in the marram grass, hind Karuka is standing grooming herself behind him.

It can get confusing when brothers are both rutting, but at least Eddy15, left, and Eddy16 were in different parts of the study area!

15 year old stag Sitar10, who is blind in his right eye

We were amazed when 15 year old Sitar10 returned. He was blinded in his right eye a good few years ago in a fight. After this was taken, he must have fought as part of his broken right antler was found!

A stag called Sepal09, stands sniffing the air. He is a hummel - a stag with no antlers

A stag called Reggae19, stands proudly. He has a full set of antlers

Sepal09 on the left, our favourite hummel, unfortunately didn't return this rut, so must have died last winter. His son Reggae19 has been in with a group of hinds just recently. We hope he will do well in coming years.

Tokay13 stag running towards a hind that is out of shot, looking very excited.

For a number of reasons we have not been posting this rut, but now we're back.
Here is Tokay13 looking like he means business. He was in the Glen early on in the season.

Parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in wild red deer Heredity - Parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in wild red deer

New paper alert! In my second first-author paper from my work on the Isle of Rum Red Deer Project @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social we show, for only the second time in a wild population, that parasites mediate inbreeding depression.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A Red Deer stag we call Hodges roaring and 2 hinds in oestrus we call Baru and Squilla

Hodges has two oestrus hinds today, Baru and Squilla
#mammals #deer #science #evobio

Hannah Lemon presenting a slide showing networks of mothers and their offspring, where offspring inherited some of the social partners of the mother

Hannah Lemon gave a very clear and interesting talk about social inheritance of social relationships from mothers to their daughters and sons (to a lesser extent) in the Rum red deer @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social.

@behaviour2025.bsky.social @asab.org

Population density drives increased parasitism via greater exposure and reduced resource availability in wild red deer | Parasitology | Cambridge Core Population density drives increased parasitism via greater exposure and reduced resource availability in wild red deer

Thrilled to share my first first-author paper from my work with the Isle of Rum Red Deer Project! @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social

We found that host density acts to increase parasitism through two mechanisms: increased exposure and increased susceptibility.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Peridot19 lying ruminating

Wisdom11, Peridot19's father

Peridot19 is also back. His father is Wisdom11 (now dead), the stag with the most offspring by far in our group of study animals.

Coypu19 looking impressive

Longbeys, Coypu19's dad in the year he was conceived

Coypu19, left and his father Longbeys in 2018, the year he was conceived.

Stag Coypu19 with big antlers ready for the rut

Coypu19 looking impressive for his age

Coypu19 is back in the study area for the rut and he is looking very impressive for a 6 year old.

Due to storm damage and blocked tracks we will have to walk 5 miles to the study site to check on infrastructure there and see how the deer coped with Storm Floris!

Photo of the calf catching team in 2025 at Kilmory, Isle of Rum

Calving Team 2025 1st instalment @celestineadelmant.bsky.social Eve Morris @seanofrum.bsky.social @sarah-dobson.bsky.social Prof Josephine Pemberton and Ali Morris @isleofrum.bsky.social

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A picture of brown deer on a brown hillside in our study area.

At this time of year, it is very difficult to spot deer. How many can you make out in this picture?

Hallival and Askival creating their own clouds in an otherwise perfect blue sky

A beautiful, but chilly morning here in the study area, although Askival just has to create a cloud all of it's own.

Kilmory Glen in flood

After 48hrs of wet and stormy weather, we have ventured out in a mere gale to find the Glen flooded.