Welcome to our newly updated Red Stag Hunting website. We have updated our offerings to include Red Stag Hunting in Argentina, Spain and Uruguay as well as New Zealand. All of our destinations offer exceptional quality Red Stag hunts, excellent guides and fantastic accommodations in modern lodges and historic estancias.  Global Sporting Safaris will offer the same full service to the new destinations as we have for New Zealand in the past.  If you have any questions, please contact Rick Kennerknecht at 888-850-HUNT, Ext. 3.  Thank you!

The Red Deer is a large ungulate (hoofed animal). Only two species of deer are larger: the moose, known in Europe as the elk, and the Elk or Wapiti of North America and East Asia.

The deer of Central and Western Europe vary greatly in size with some of the largest deer found in the Carpathian Mountains in Central Europe. West European Red Deer historically, grew to large size given ample food supply (including peoples' crops), and descendants of introduced populations living in New Zealand and Argentina have grown quite large in size and antlers. East European Red Deer stags and West European Red Deer stags of the Carpathian Mountains may rival the Wapiti in size. Note that the large size is applied to male deer only. Female Red Deer are much smaller.

Generally, the average male (stag) Red Deer of Europe is 4’ tall and weighs 650 lb. European Red Deer tend to be reddish-brown in their summer coats. The males of many subspecies also grow a short neck mane ("mane" of hair around their necks) during the autumn. The male deer of the British Isles and Norway tend to have the thickest and most noticeable neck manes, relative to the other subspecies. Male East European Red Deer and Spanish Red Deer do not carry neck manes. Male deer of all subspecies, however, tend to have stronger and thicker neck muscles than female deer, which may give them an appearance of having neck manes. Red Deer hinds (females) do not have neck manes. The European Red Deer is adapted to a woodland environment. All Red Deer subspecies are between 7 to 8 feet in length from nose to tail.

Only the stags have antlers which start growing in the spring and are shed each year, usually at the end of winter. Antlers are made of bone which can grow at a rate of 1 inch per day. A soft covering known as velvet helps to protect newly forming antlers in the spring. European red deer antlers are distinctive in being rather straight and rugose, with the fourth and fifth tines forming a "crown" or "cup" in larger males. Any tines in excess of the fourth and fifth tine will grow radially from the "cup". "Cups" are generally absent in the antlers of smaller red deer such as Corsican Red Deer. West European Red Deer antlers feature bez (second) tines that are either absent or smaller than the brow tine. However, bez tines occur frequently in Norwegian Red Deer. Antlers of East European red deer carry large bez (second) tines and form less-developed "cups" than West European red deer. A stag can (exceptionally) have smooth antlers, and is then known as a switch. Similarly, a stag that doesn't grow antlers is a hummel. The antlers are testosterone driven and as the stag's testosterone levels drop in the autumn, the velvet is shed and the antlers stop growing.

During the autumn, all Red Deer subspecies grow a thicker coat of hair which helps to insulate them during the winter. Autumn is also when some of the stags grow their neck manes. It is in the autumn/winter coat that distinguishes most subspecies. The East European Red Deer's winter coat is greyer and has a larger and more distinguished light rump-patch (similar to Wapitis and some Central Asian Red Deer) compared to the West European Red Deer which is more of a grayish-brown coat with a darker yellowish rump patch in the winter. By the time summer begins, the heavy winter coat has been shed; the animals are known to rub against trees and other objects to help remove hair from their bodies. Red Deer have different coloration based on the seasons and types of habitats, with grey or lighter coloration prevalent in the winter and a more reddish and darker coat in the summer. Most European Red Deer wear a reddish-brown summer coat, and some individuals may have a few spots on the backs of their summer coats.