Iain Maciver writes …

They looked a bit like scruffy kangaroos as they tried to punch the stuffing out of each other. Yet these are two angry stags which decided to get up on two legs and resorted to fisticuffs to settle their differences in a bizarre boxing match. A severe blow to the chin of one them was enough to sort it out and the loser backed off and fled.

The stag night fight is on   Pic: Ron McCombe

It happened last month in North Uist and the boxing match between the two young stags was captured by Berwickshire-based wildlife photographer Ron McCombe. Ron had been staying at Baleshare and said they were quite close to his car when he came across them at Clachan one evening. He picked up his camera and rested it on a beanbag on the window and started shooting.

“They started to nudge each other by the shoulders and then they stood up. It just happened. It wasn’t playing around. It was serious stuff. As the photos show, one landed a left hook on the the chin of the other, knocked it down onto all fours and he ran away. It must have been quite a blow.”  Although he has snapped many deer, Ron, who lives in Coldstream and was Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year in 2010, said he had never seen such a spectacular boxing match as that.

George Macdonald, the factor of North Uist Estate on whose land the scrap took place, said it was something that they had spotted from time to time. He said: “It has never been explained to me why deer do this. It is usually stags that have shed their antlers and the ones in the photos fall in this category. It is thought that it is perhaps stags asserting their dominance and sorting out the pecking order while their new antlers are growing and the new antlers are in velvet. Any damage to the soft tissue of the new antlers would affect their growth at this stage. However, there is also a playful element involved and very occasionally hinds will also do this.

Kapow. A powerful left hook and it was all over   Pic: Ron McCombe

“During the spring, young stags group together and I suppose, like all young men, they like to sort out who’s boss. The deer in the photos look pretty shabby. This is because they are shedding their old coat at this time of year.”

A spokesman for Scottish Natural Heritage said they knew of boxing matches between hinds as well. It was usually because of the need to assert dominance within the group or grazing if grass, for example, was in short supply.

And Auchtermuchty-based Dr John Fletcher, often regarded as the UK’s foremost deer vet and authority on behaviour in the species, confirmed some red deer stags indeed resort to boxing at this time of year when they have cast their antlers and are growing new ones.

He explained: “Basically, they cannot challenge each other with their usual weapons i.e. hard antlers and the new growing antlers are soft and sensitive and so they make do with their forefeet when it comes to deciding rank.” Dr Fletcher has written about the deer boxing phenomenom in his book, Fletcher’s Game, which also details the history and development of deer farming in the UK.