Iberian Red Deer in the Night
Red deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus)at mid distance in the rutting season. The night has fallen and everything seems to have gotten very quiet to listen or give space for this big animal. Its roars fill the space, a large area of montado.
The red deer – a roaring mammal – produce the deep sound by lowering the larynx within the windpipe, which elongates the vocal tract (like a wind instrument or string instrument, which sound’s pitch produced is relative to the length of the tube or string, respectively). According to George David Haskell, in his book “Sounds Wild and Broken”, the descent of the larynx happens during the breathing season.
The red deer in Portugal is one of the animals that is present in Christian mythology not in a good way – there are two separate but similar myths in which the devil reincarnated in the body of a stag, to lure and attempt to push down a cliff one “noble warrior” and a king, in separate occasions and regions. Don’t worry: they were both saved by Christian figures.
I wonder if the origin of the myth it has to do with the antlers or their call which can sound very terrifying. Perhaps both.