red deer stag fighting

VIDEO: Stag Carries Decapitated Rival’s Head Interlocked with His Antlers

Startling footage shows this stag carrying around the full head of a dead rival, antlers and all, locked into his own.

What a sight. By the antlers, these look to be young red deer stags. Their coats turn brown in the winter, making them resemble other species. But those majestic, almost elk-like racks are a dead giveaway (pun intended) for the species.

Unlike most species, red deer males are often referred to as stags (not bucks). But the proper term for a male is hart, and hind for a female. From rut to territory disputes, battles between these harts, or stags, get fierce. Due to those impressive racks, death from battles – or wounds sustained within – are common. And in this case, the male still walking took a hard-earned victory:

“Deer carries with him a little something extra,” Nature is Metal captions of their latest bizarre video. It’s right on the money, though doesn’t exactly prepare you for how metal this sight is.

“It is not uncommon for the antlers of battling ungulates to become so entangled that they become inseparable. We’ve shown a few examples in the past of this very thing occurring,” the outlet continues. “Tensions are high, neither animal is willing to back down, one combatant expires before the other (unless both die) and the living one drags the dead ones body around until the majority of its body rots away.”

As their caption cites, this can happen between stags naturally. It’s something Nature is Metal and Outsider have seen before. But on this particular one, “The cuts look a little too clean, which makes [Nature is Metal] think that someone found this animal and freed the living one from the dead weight he was hauling around.”

Majestic Stags and Graceful Does: The Red Deer

Red deer (Cervus elaphus) are native to North America, Europe, Asia, and are also found in northwestern Africa. The species is also familiar to New Zealand, though not native. Long a source of food and sport for humanity, these cervids are found primarily in woodlands.

Reds live in sexually segregated herds, so it is common to see a hart (stag) herd or hind (doe) herd. Once breeding season (The Rut) kicks in, however, except during the breeding season, when the males battle over harems. A harem is a grouping of females, which the males will breed with rapidly.

One of the larger cervid species, red deer stands about 4 feet tall (1.2 metres) at the shoulder alone. Add in their neck, head, and antlers, and a stag will stand at 6 feet or taller. Their name comes from the reddish tint of their coat, which darkens to a dull brownish-gray in winter (for camouflage). Like white-tails and wapiti (North American elk), red deer also have a light-to-white colored rump and underbelly.

As the video above shows, their antlers are an impressive sight unique to the species. Their racks feature an even branching up to the top, where clusters can form. In total, reds sport 10 or more tines. According to Britannica, an animal with 12 tines is known as a “Royal,” and one with 14 tines is a “Wilson.”

Currently, the red deer is listed as a species of “least concern” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.