Celebrity stag killed by kindness. Vets forced to put down the North Coast 500 star <\/p>
A Red Deer stag that had become a star of social media has had to be humanely destroyed by vets. <\/strong><\/p> They discovered him\u00a0in\u00a0a poor physical condition at the\u00a0Beinn\u00a0Eighe\u00a0car park near Torridon in the Scottish Highlands, suffering from painful arthritis and malnutrition.<\/p> For many years well-meaning visitors\u00a0to the area\u00a0had been feeding\u00a0the stag, dubbed\u00a0Callum, with cereal bars, croissants and Rice Krispies.\u00a0<\/p> He\u00a0had become used to\u00a0being fed by hand, which led to\u00a0frequent car park visits\u00a0in the tourist season. He had also become\u00a0far from camera shy. Many\u00a0people\u00a0travelling the North Coast 500<\/a> route\u00a0took\u00a0the\u00a0opportunity to snap a picture,\u00a0but unfortunately the sugary snacks\u00a0they gave him in return\u00a0rotted his teeth,\u00a0making it difficult for him to forage naturally.\u00a0<\/p> With\u00a0hardly any\u00a0teeth\u00a0left\u00a0to\u00a0easily\u00a0graze his native grasses,\u00a0heather <\/a>and\u00a0tree shoots,\u00a0Callum the stag\u00a0became dependent on\u00a0supplementing his diet with junk food\u00a0and\u00a0being\u00a0fed\u00a0hay\u00a0<\/a>by locals during the winter months. Although this can sustain horses<\/a> and bovine animals, it is not wholly nutritious for Red Deer as they do not have the digestive system to process it.\u00a0<\/p> Signs by the footpath from the car park to\u00a0Beinn\u00a0Eighe\u00a0pictured Callum with the message\u00a0\u201cPlease do not feed me or get too close!\u201d\u00a0but these were often not heeded\u00a0by hikers and passing motorists\u00a0in the thrill of getting close to a wild Red Deer.<\/p> Callum\u2019s story is just one of many\u00a0told\u00a0in the Highlands<\/a> of enthusiastic tourists interacting inappropriately with local wildlife. In 2020 a hotel in Glencoe issued a warning to guests not to approach or feed the deer <\/a>after one visitor was seen waving chocolate biscuits at a stag, which provoked the animal into charging, while another tried to\u00a0get\u00a0a young deer\u00a0to drink whisky, which led to it invading a camper\u2019s tent.<\/p> In neither case was anyone\u00a0hurt\u00a0but the stories\u00a0could\u00a0have ended\u00a0in\u00a0grave injuries\u00a0to both people and animals.<\/p> Highland historian Andrew Grant McKenzie, who is a Red Deer enthusiast, said: The issue of people feeding wildlife is one that comes up regularly across the Highlands. Callum was a wild animal who became a bit of a local legend and if he is now gone, hopefully his life has highlighted the importance of respecting our natural world in the Highlands and not feeding the deer things which they wouldn\u2019t be able to browse themselves naturally.\u201d<\/p> Main image: <\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Celebrity stag killed by kindness. Vets forced to put down the North Coast 500 star <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":39683,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/famous-stag-put-down-after-tourists-feed-it-croissants.jpg",8000,6400,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/famous-stag-put-down-after-tourists-feed-it-croissants.jpg",150,120,false],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/famous-stag-put-down-after-tourists-feed-it-croissants-300x240.jpg",300,240,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/famous-stag-put-down-after-tourists-feed-it-croissants-768x614.jpg",768,614,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/famous-stag-put-down-after-tourists-feed-it-croissants-1024x819.jpg",800,640,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/famous-stag-put-down-after-tourists-feed-it-croissants.jpg",1536,1229,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/famous-stag-put-down-after-tourists-feed-it-croissants.jpg",2048,1638,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Celebrity stag killed by kindness. Vets forced to put down the North Coast 500 star","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/39682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"