What are these?

I know I have seen them before, but can't put my finger on it. Dybowski Sika? They showed up on my place recently.

Looks like young red stag with their first set of antlers. Sika can have spots and I dont see it here in these photos so I'm thinking red stag and possibly 1 yr. The coloring just doesn't look right to me for sika.

Yeah, Sika generally don't have this coloring, but I found some photos of Dybowski Sika's and they look very close. Body looks like red stag, the antlers are throwing me off. There is a doe with these two.

Sika/red stag cross.. . It does happen...a lot

Lucky

young stags. young debowski sika looks very similar to an axis hide without the dark brown/black patch on the back.

If they are in fact stags, do these guys roam a large area?

Kinda look like stags to me.

Have to agree w/ the masses...appear to be red deer spikes. They can most definitely cover a lot of area, but could stick around if they have ample food/water.

I know they were within a half mile of this spot about this time last year. We have numerous tanks and an ample variety of grasses and natural browse. They sure are staying hidden well. Hopefully, they'll stick around and multiply. If not, oh well...

Red stag spikes. They'll stick around if you have females in the area, but will definately roam once they get rutty.

There are females...

Thanks for the info everyone.

Red DEER spikes

Not being familiar with these animals, how long do they remain as spikes? I know there were some of these very similar in size and structure close to this spot last year. Looking at pictures of red stags, they appear to grow much larger racks. Does that start several years down the road or can they be like whitetails and be spikes for years?

Our place is 3,500 acres, but we are surrounded by larger ranches starting around 6,000 acres. None of them have been raising exotics to my knowledge. There are game ranches in the general area however.

I have never had ours be spikes more than once. These don't look to me to be two years old. If these are free range, take them out! That is some good eating right there.

And yes they can roam a very large area on free range. Just about like elk do on free range. If these are left alone they will migrate through your area and probably someone elses.

red stag lucky dog

We must have more than I have seen then... The ones last year were spikes like these...

Well if so, the body size doesn't match up in my opinion to be a two year old or older. Just about everything about them looks young to me. I could understand one, but two? Are you feeding protein year around?

Targets

Most likely there are more than you thought - Elk, Red Deer, and Sika all have basically the same horn growth pattern - Young of the year may have nubs or short spikes, 18 month olds look like yours above with long unbranched spikes (sometimes forked or multi-tined at the very tip), and then in their 2nd full year, they should start showing brows and branching as 3x3's or 4x4's +. On that size place, they are likely to stick around for the most part. They may wander off, but if you have big neighbors, they'll have a chance of establishing.

What county are you in?

x2

No, but I could be on a moments notice. That was my next question. Other than the standard corn and protein, is there something that may help "hold" them?

Thanks a bunch for the info. I am in Palo Pinto county.....which is another story. Lots of fires last year. Maybe they escaped one of the game managed places.

If you have any alfalfa or oat fields they'll stick around. They love alfalfa hay and will tear the bales apart themselves.

Got it covered. Thanks for the advice!

Hahahah .... Targets lol whatever they are they sure are weird looking.

young red deer

Definitely young Red Deer...

It's interesting because I agree they appear young, but there were some like this last year also...within about a half mile of this site. We haven't seen anything that would appear to be older.

There are areas that are very thick and rugged...pretty much impossible to get to on the ranch, maybe that's where they stay. Plenty of hardwoods, natural browse and water in there. The southwest corner of our place and the southeast corner of the 6,000 acre place next to us are sort of a no mans land. Not much, if any, hunting takes place on the 6,000 acre place. We only hunt 4, but 2 of those are not regular. I dunno...

Not surprising in the least - you said you've seen some females, you had 18 month olds last year, and 18 month olds this year - There's probably a stag or two out there too. Put your trailcam out whereever you see the females in October.

Had a friend that had a herd of 20 or so red stag/elk hybrids down in webb county. I hunted there several times, and only caught a fleeting glimpse of one, and he mentioned that they usually only see them in the fields at night. We had a 300 class bull elk completely disappear on us for 6 months in a 1500 acre fenced pasture. You would think that an animal that size would stick out like a sore thumb, but they know how to hide.

Thanks for the story... I'll be putting alfalfa bails and feed out in the morning in and around the areas they have been seen. The bails and feed will be in feeder pens to keep hogs out. Cameras will be present. I'll try this for a while and see if anything develops. If not, back to my regularly scheduled program...

Let me know if you want me to come out and take a closer look through my scope...