Worse for Wear

The stag who found himself on the front page of The Times on Wednesday was an odd choice. It's not just that he was a fairly junior animal, no Monarch of the Glen. It's the fact that his coat showed distinct signs of moult. Hardly dressed to the nines.

I imagine that it was the setting that appealed to the editor as much as the animal.

By comparison our red deer remain pretty well turned out as seen in the hind here looking up after feeding contentedly on Blacka's ample supply of bramble.

Different again is the young deer. In their first winter it's common for them to grow a thick and usually dark-coloured extra layer which then falls away once winter is well behind them.