One moonlit September night, a deep, powerful voice is heard: it’s the signal. Soon others would echo from the depths of the forest. At the start of autumn, the forests of the Hautes-Pyrénées are filled with the clamour of the great local “fawn”: the stag.
Every year, it challenges for dominance and possession of its harem. And so, night after night, the tone rises…
Slabbing is the mating season of the king of our forests: the stag. It lasts about a month and starts around 15 September.
By bellowing, the stag warns of its presence, intimidates and defies other males that might approach its territory. This “Don Juan” becomes irascible and particularly aggressive. If they meet up with another adult male after a phase of intimidation, the two adversaries may engage in a fairly fierce fight of varying duration. The winner will keep his territory, while the loser will try again later, either in the same place or elsewhere with other dominant stags.
