Extra caution should be taken on roads near woodland areas or forests as the 'rutting' season gets underway.

It is the time of year when male deer go on the hunt for a female friend, which often leads to fierce competition between the stags. 

Damien Hannigan from the Irish Deer Commission said the rut can be a violent thing to witness. 

“There’s lots of roaring, there’s lots of fights and shoving and pushing,” he said. 

“The males tend to try and make themselves more attractive - in their eyes - by covering themselves in mud and urinating on themselves. 

“They’re going in search of females and it involves crossing roads and maybe their guard can be down in terms of being aware.” 

Fallow Deer are seen in the early morning in Dublin's Phoenix Park in October 2022. Picture by: Sasko Lazarov/Rollingnews.ie

On rare occasions, stags have even been known to die because their antlers become entangled. 

“Usually, it’s quite quick, usually one will get the measure of the other and the lesser deer will gallop off over the hill being chased by the victor,” Wicklow Mountains National Park guide Gillian Stewart said. 

“Sometimes it can go on for much longer and there have been cases in the past, not often, where their antlers got knotted together and they ended up dying if nothing was done to intervene.

“That doesn’t happen very often; I’ve only ever seen it on social media and TV.”

For those intrigued, a ‘rut watch’ will be held this Sunday in Glendalough, County Wicklow.

Main image: A Fallow Deer stag makes his intentions known to a herd in the Phoenix Park, Dublin in October 2022. Picture by: Eamonn Farrell/Rollingnews.ie

Reporting by Aoife Kearns and James Wilson.