Skip to main content

WHOSE HEAD'S THE STAG'S HEAD'S STAG HEAD?

Submitted by Editor on

Reader John Ellis has been enjoying Spurtle’s coverage of recent changes at the Stag’s Head on Broughton Road/Rodney Street (Issue 219, p.2).

In particular, the phrase ‘murky authenticity’ has struck a chord.

‘I’ve always felt,’ writes Mr Ellis, that there was something suspicious about the creature on the pub’s sign’.

‘It has the characteristic muzzle of a roe deer (white with a black moustache), but, of course, has been given the antlers of perhaps a red deer.

‘Is it a doctored photo/painting? Does the owner know?’

Alas, whoever originally commissioned the pub sign has long since left, but Spurtle has undertaken a little research.

The Discover Wildlife website is helpful, particularly the page on ‘How to age a roe deer from its antlers’ (not something we ever felt the need to do in the pub before). It is immediately apparent that Mr Ellis is right – whatever it is which adorns the side of the Stag’s Head, it is not a roe deer.

A thorough rummage through the British Deer Society website suggests that the Broughton Road specimen also belongs to none of the other five species now native in these isles (red, fallow, sika. muntjac and Chinese water deer).

So, stumped by the combination of muzzle and antlers and the troublesome question of why we never bothered to think about this earlier, Spurtle has now appealed to Edinburgh Zoo for a definitive answer. In the meantime, can any reader help? 

Contact us by email spurtle@hotmail.co.uk on Facebook Broughton Spurtle or Twitter @theSpurtle

--------

Reactions

  •  
    Neale Gilhooley When will the Stag's Head re-open and in what form?
  •  
    Steve Byrne Seems to be a white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) from North America: http://www.the-whitetail-deer.com/world-record-whitetail-deer.html
    World Record Whitetail Deer
    www.the-whitetail-deer.com
    The scoring for world record whitetail deer is based on the total inches of certain measurements taken by an official measurer.
    Like · Reply · Remove Preview · 1 ·
     
    Douglas Richardson, Head of Living Collections for Highland Wildlife Park has replied with the below advice: 'It is definitely one of the North American deer of the genus Odocoileus, probably the eastern species, the white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus.' — Royal Zoological Society of Scotland
    I suppose that the White-tailed Deer will do, but why was it chosen?  I see that there is an introduced population of this species in Finland.  I'm glad it's not a composite picture, because that would raise questions about whether or not it could be called a 'stag' at all. — John Ellis