Stag caught using antlers to steal food
Biologist Dr Jochen Langbein has been researching and filming red deer in the area for two years. (stock photo)
A stag has been filmed using its antlers to steal bird food from a suburban garden in Exmoor, Somerset.
Biologist Dr Jochen Langbein has been researching and filming red deer in the area for two years. Video footage captured at the edge of Exmoor National Park shows a mature red deer stag knocking bird feeders out of trees.
“It’s learned to very deliberately use the tip of his antlers to dislodge bird feeders in order to get at the contents,” Dr Langbein told BBC News. “At the moment it’s only him, the others haven’t caught on yet.”
Dr Langbein said he saw the “particularly wily old stag” raiding another feeder two years ago, but he was “not quite as adept then”.
With poaching on the rise on Exmoor, Dr Langbein explained that stags repeatedly return to their favourite “garden haunts” where they feel safe.
With Strangles Awareness Week just around the corner (5-11 May), vets are being encouraged to share a survey about the disease with their horse-owning clients.
