Red Deer colouration

Connacht

I saw 4 Red Deer yesterday.
One was smaller than the others, so I'm guessing this may have been female or juvenile.
But one of the three other larger ones had a much darker coat than the others. Like really dark brown, almost brown / black.
What would that be ? A significantly older animal perhaps, or just natural variation ?
Many thanks.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

The stags can weigh up to 130kg, the female hinds are smaller and lighter. They generally have red fur similar in colour to that of a fox, but it turns thicker and grey/brown in winter. There can be considerable variation in the colour of fur even with a closely related herd.

Graces7

We saw deer up here for the first time yesterday. Huge ears. Not sure which kind they were.

CJhaughey

Donegal Blue stacks most likely Red deer.

Graces7

CJhaughey wrote: »

Donegal Blue stacks most likely Red deer.

Thank you and yes.

Previously we had only seen the Sika, up near Laghey. We were out early one morning and a stag leapt into the road in front of us. He stopped so we had a good look at him before he crossed safely and leapt the next fence.

Beautiful creature; they frequented too the house we rented there.

This time there were four or five.

Nearly "collected" a hare on that same lane.

wildlifeboy

i have seen deer on the road into bangor erris along the owenmore river..do you know if these are Sika or Red?

Poll Dubh

wildlifeboy wrote: »

i have seen deer on the road into bangor erris along the owenmore river..do you know if these are Sika or Red?

Red Deer and they're massive farm deer that were released in the area.

Connacht

Yeah, thee are only Red Deer in North Mayo.
Sika in south of county.

Connacht

Yeah, there are only Red Deer in North Mayo.
Sika in south of county.