# Social Aspects of Wallowing Behaviour in Red Deer Herds > Why would 150 red deer stags all squeeze into one mud wallow when there are plenty of empty ones nearby? Watching deer on a high alpine pasture and in Black Forest enclosures, two researchers from the University of Freiburg found that the crowded wallow becomes a stage where rank is shown, with big-antlered stags taking their turn first and young animals learning their place. Mass wallowing may also help bring the herd together to start its day. Summary by Kersey Lawrence, Original Wisdom. Updated 9 November 2026. Page: https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/1974-gossow-schurholz-social-aspects-wallowing-behaviour/ ## Citation and access - **Authors:** Hartmut Gossow and Götz Schürholz - **Year published:** 1974 - **Journal or source:** Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie - **Full citation:** Gossow, H. and Schürholz, G. 1974. Social aspects of wallowing behaviour in red deer herds. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 34(4): 329–336. - **DOI:** 10.1111/j.1439-0310.1974.tb01806.x - **Access status:** Publisher link only - **Where to find it:** https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.1974.tb01806.x ## Tags - **Species:** Mammals > Red deer - **Region:** Europe > Germany - **Behaviour and ecology:** Behaviour; Competition - **Methods and technology:** Descriptive statistics; Direct observation - **Data type:** New field data - **Observer qualification:** Not needed - **Discipline:** Behaviour and ecology - **Year published:** 1974 ## Detailed keywords - **Species:** Studied: red deer (no scientific name given in the paper): two small herds in enclosures (4 and 6 animals) and a free-ranging alpine summer herd of about 150 animals, mostly stags in velvet with some barren and yearling hinds. Wallowing in other species is mentioned from the literature: American buffalo (Bison bison), cattle in the Camargue, moose, wapiti, tule elk and barasingha. - **Location and habitat:** Two enclosures in the Black Forest, the Aildwald (also spelled Ailwald in the paper) and Tonbach enclosures, and an alpine study area (not named in the paper) where the summer herd used a high-altitude cattle pasture surrounded by light forest, dense thickets, rocks and valleys, with large wallows in the grassy plains and the forest. The country is not stated; the authors worked at the Faculty of Forestry, University of Freiburg. - **Topics:** wallowing; wallows as a shared resource; rank order (social hierarchy); dominance and threat behaviour (antler threats, kicking, biting, chasing); ritualized pre-wallowing sequence (pawing, horning the ground, rolling); play and frolicking; social integration of young animals into stag (bachelor) herds; synchronizing herd activity; stags in velvet; antler length as an age class; calves as “nuisance” animals not yet integrated in the hierarchy; mud colour on coats (peat versus loamy wallows). - **Statistics or models:** Descriptive only: counts of competitive encounters between individually known animals (Table 1) and counts and percentages of animals that wallowed, by age and sex class, against the number expected if wallowing were spread evenly (Table 2). No statistical tests. Age classes of stags were estimated from antler length in multiples of ear length (up to 1.0, 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, and 4.0 or more). Possible inconsistencies: the text says single hinds and spikes were more successful at finding a place to wallow than “middle aged and younger stags”, but in Table 2 the 2.5 ear-length class wallowed more often (32% and 44%) than barren and yearling hinds (20% and 27%) and spikes (20% in both herds); the claim holds only for the two smallest antler classes. The text gives 52% and 50% of each summer herd wallowing; Table 2 gives 49.7% (147 animals) and 51.6% (91 animals). The Tonbach enclosure is described as 6 animals but 5 are listed (a calf of the 3-year-old hind makes the sixth); the ages printed for the Tonbach stag (23 years) and one hind (22 years) may be printing errors in the original. - **Data type:** New field data: chance observations made during a 4-year field study in an alpine region (Gossow 1971) and an experimental enclosure study in the Black Forest lasting a few weeks (Schürholz 1972), including detailed records from 26 and 29 February (year not given). Two fully recorded wallowing events in the summer herd (147 and 91 animals present). ## Synopsis ### 1. What they did Wallowing in mud is well known in deer and cattle, but earlier work on deer mostly linked it to the rut, hot weather, biting insects or the moult. The authors noticed red deer wallowing in other seasons too and asked what social role wallowing might play. They drew on observations they had already made for other studies: - Two enclosure herds in the Black Forest in late winter. One held a 5-year-old stag, a 6 to 7-year-old hind with her calf, and a yearling hind. The other held an old but still dominant stag, a spike, three hinds and a calf. Every animal was known individually and its place in the rank order was known. There were more wallows than animals in each enclosure. - A free-ranging alpine herd of about 150 red deer in summer, mostly stags in velvet with some barren and yearling hinds, on a high pasture with many wallows big enough for 20 to 30 stags at a time. Few animals were individually known and none were marked, so the authors sorted stags into age classes by antler length, measured by eye in multiples of ear length. They described typical wallowing events in detail, counted who displaced whom at the wallow in one enclosure, and counted how many animals of each class wallowed in two summer wallowing events. ### 2. What they found One wallow at a time - Wallows were plentiful in both the enclosures and the alpine area, yet a herd usually used only one wallow at a time, even with many empty wallows nearby. That one wallow could not hold everyone. - Wallowing could be started by any animal, of any age. Others were drawn in by the sight or sound (pawing, snorting, groaning) of animals already wallowing, and the wallow filled within a very short time. A ritual before wallowing When there was time, the deer followed almost the same steps: pawing the mud with one front leg, then the other; touching and gently rubbing the mud with the forehead; kneeling on the forelegs; lying down; and rolling from one side over the back to the other. Hinds rolled right over often; an antlered stag did so only once. Rank order at the wallow (enclosures) - In two detailed events in February, the dominant stag repeatedly pushed hinds, the yearling and the calf out of the wallow with antler threats and chases, sometimes without wallowing himself. The older hind in turn chased, kicked and bit the yearling hind and the calf to keep them out. - In the Aildwald enclosure, 37 competitive encounters were recorded: 18 by the stag, 13 by the older hind and 6 by the yearling hind, so encounters became fewer further down the rank order. The calf never displaced anyone, but threatened back 3 times. The authors saw similar “nuisance” behaviour from calves in free-ranging herds and put it down to calves not yet having a place in the hierarchy. - Events often ended in play, such as a game of “tag and catch” lasting about 10 minutes with the whole group taking part. Mass wallowing in the summer stag herd - The big herd wallowed together repeatedly, mostly between 13:00 and 16:00, when the animals regrouped after dispersing into the forest in the morning. In the enclosures, wallowing happened at any time of day. - About half the herd wallowed in each of the two fully recorded events (73 of 147 animals, and 47 of 91). - Wallowing was concentrated in the largest-antlered stags: 84% and 92% of stags with antlers about 3.5 ear lengths, and 82% and 86% of those with 4 or more, compared with 8% to 12% of stags with the shortest antlers. A drawing from a photograph shows mainly big-antlered stags in the wallow and smaller ones only standing by. - Stags in velvet were generally very tolerant of each other. The little pushing, threatening, kicking, biting and chasing that did occur was concentrated around wallows and just before resting (over the best resting spots). Competition happened mainly between stags with similar antler length. - Afterwards, younger stags often frolicked and jumped while others rested beside the wallow. Events lasted from 10 to 15 minutes up to 30 minutes or more, sometimes ending in a sudden, flight-like departure, especially when older, high-ranking stags led it. - Animals that had wallowed were easy to tell apart: their coats were grey or blackish with mud, while the others stayed bright red. The colour depended on the wallow: peat wallows rich in organic material, or more loamy ground. - On days without an opening wallowing “party”, the big herd was more spread out over its range, often for longer. ### 3. What they concluded - Wallows were not in short supply, but because a whole herd crowded into one wallow at a time, that wallow became a limited resource, and the rank order showed itself there. The authors see this as the basis of the social side of wallowing outside the rut. - Wallowing is often started by younger animals and seems to draw in older, dominant ones, leading to competition that displays rank. - In summer, food is plentiful and stags in velvet do not defend their rank all the time. The authors conclude that wallowing and the competition around it help integrate younger animals into the stag (bachelor) herd. This may be linked to the display role of wallows and wallowed stags in the rut. - Because the summer herd usually wallowed at the start of its shared activity periods, the authors suggest wallowing helps synchronize the herd’s activity. ### 6. Other technologies, skills or innovations - Age classes of unmarked stags estimated by eye from antler length, as multiples of ear length. - Behaviour sequences recorded from photograph series and shown as drawings. ### 8. Implications for tracking (Original Wisdom's observations) _These are Original Wisdom's observations, not the authors'._ - Wallows are signs in their own right. This paper suggests that a single heavily used wallow surrounded by unused ones may reflect a herd’s social life rather than a shortage of wallows. - Mud on a deer’s coat shows that it has recently wallowed, and its colour (grey or blackish) can hint at the kind of wallow used, peat or loamy ground. Clean, bright coats in the same group mark the animals that did not wallow. - Since mainly the large-antlered stags wallowed in summer, sign around wallows at that season may come mostly from large-antlered (probably older) stags. ## Cite this summary Lawrence, K. 2026. Summary of: Social Aspects of Wallowing Behaviour in Red Deer Herds (Gossow and Schürholz, 1974). Original Wisdom, Tracking Literature. https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/1974-gossow-schurholz-social-aspects-wallowing-behaviour/