Rob Gets A Response From A Stag And Wins The Contest

Curious Britain strikes again! For those of us who sometimes worry about our social skills and how well we interact with people, the news that Rob Follett of Withycombe in Devon has actually held a passable conversation with an Exmoor stag would be something that would be beyond our comprehension.

Talking to the animals

Perhaps some explanation is required, as the little scenario took place as part of the Annual World Bolving Championship held at Draydon Rails, near Dulverton in North Devon. Unless we describe what “Bolving” is, the position doesn’t become any clearer.

Richard Eales, past winner and organiser of the 10th Championships explains. He said bolving referred to the noise made by red deer during the rutting season, which normally starts from early to mid-October.  He explained: "The red deer make a roar - a challenge - and you can mimic it and get the red stag to answer you, It's a deep sort of roar from the belly, it's got to come from the belly. You open your throat, put your hands up and it's got to be a blood curdling roar from inside."

The challenge for the participants imitating the low bellowing sound of the red deer is for a real stag to answer their call.  This year 45 people took part in the event, so one can suspect that there were a number of particularly confused stags in the area that day.

He said the bigger stags rounded up the females known as hinds. "One stag will keep his harem of hinds together, but this is his challenge - this roar. The basic line is 'come and have a go if you think you're hard enough'.

"You'll get two big stags and they'll be bolving, running around sizing each other up, then they'll have a bit of a tussle and the weaker stag normally gets pushed off.  Or if they're evenly matched then that's when you get the classic rutting scene of the red deer stags going down and locking antlers and having a bit of a battle."

35 year old Rob was amongst the competitors who got a response from a real stag. It was the first time he had plucked up the courage to enter the contest, and he said: "I can't believe I have won. I love watching the deer and have listened to the stags call and roar over the years."

All money raised will be given to the Devon Air Ambulance Trust.