A very different day in pursuit of red stags

We’re breathless as we stand on the Turkish mountainside on the first day of our hunt for a Caspian red stag. Though the climb has been steep, it’s not the physical exertion that has stolen our breath: it’s the view.

As far as the eye can see, undulating mountain ridges and sharp, wooded peaks break the horizon into disparate patterns like the torn edge of a piece of paper. Jens Kjaer Knudsen and I stop for a moment alongside our friend and guide for this hunting expedition, Recep Ecer, to take in the beauty of the location.

We are at an altitude of 1,600m in a semi-open area with low juniper bushes, cypresses and a shrub with fruit that looks like wild apples but is not. Isolated pine and oak trees march across the landscape like a succession of kings. We’re soon joined by the area’s head guide, Mithat Kilicarslan, who has been