Can it really jump that far?

 

The stag is the king of the forest. In the Black Forest, as in other parts of Germany, lives the red deer. It can grow up to 1.50 meters tall and up to 2.50 meters long. It can weigh up to 250 kilograms. The typical feature of deer is their antlers, which, however, only the males wear. It is interesting to note that the antlers grow anew every year. It first falls off in spring and develops again until summer, with two more shoots growing each year. Thus, the age of a male deer can be determined by the number of antlers, although it cannot exceed twelve ends.

 

Equally typical for deer are their roaring sounds during the rutting season, which takes place in late summer. Calves are born at the beginning of summer. They grow up in a group with several hinds, one of which leads the herd. The males live mostly solitary.

 

However, the number of red deer in the Black Forest is no longer very high. On the other hand, it plays a not insignificant role in the culture of this region.

 

In the valley Höllental there is the so-called "Hirschsprung" ("stag jump"), a narrow, rocky place where the mountain slopes rise 130 meters above the valley floor. At the base they were only nine meters apart, at the upper rocky edge close to fifty. There is a bronze stag figure with a height of two and a half meters, which reminds of a legend. Right here, a stag is said to have saved itself from a knight who was hunting for it with a mighty leap from one mountainside to the other. I wonder if this is true. In the course of time, however, the place was widened by man.

 

Interesting is also the connection of the deer with the origin of the Danube source river Brigach near St. Georgen. The Brigach rises at the Hirzbauernhof. "Hirz" is the Old High German word for "stag", and indeed, not far from the source of the Brigach, there is a stone with the image of a white stag on it.