Todays efforts yielded this old fella, a great stag, teeth to the gum And not often you find one of these afterwards...

Update: to explain my excitement over worn down teeth.

Put simply, as they chew fresh fodder and the chime they regurgitate ungulates wear down their teeth.

In this sense, without predation, the life of an ungulate is determined by the quality of the teeth.

As they age, the teeth erode away. Eventually the molars get so worn that they break up and the deer/sheep/buffalo/etc. can't eat.

The oldest deer in the world was a domestic red deer who died at nearly 32 years old...but she was fed essentially soup for years.

In the wild, especially on the coarse vegetation of the Highlands - with heather and grit being particularly abrasive, the natural life of a deer is limited to a maximum of 13 to 14 years (though avg. of about 10 for and 9 for if using Rum red deer data).

As deer managers it's our job to cull deer, obviously, but part of that is to keep an eye out for older beasts and to remove them from the herd and the hill before they reach such a stage where their biology does for them and they starve to death.

With regards to stag stalking, this is exactly the profile of stag I look for when I take out clients. An older beast - teeth to the gum, so likelihood of doing well this winter is drastically reduced and he's been sitting with hinds for a few days, so has done his duty.

The client generally takes away the antlers, a tangible reminder of their day and the Highland ecology lesson they get when they come stalking with me () and the carcase enters the food chain (though some clients want the meat too).

I hope this adds a bit of context and information. If anyone has any other - sensible - questions I'm happy to do my best to answer.

(Stupid remarks and AH rhetoric will get you muted/blocked, I don't have the energy engage with it).