Nature lovers fear Richmond Park may have to close for two months every year because of the danger posed by stags during the rutting season.

Last month a women was gored by a stag and received hospital treatment for six puncture wounds caused by its antlers.

And on Saturday a man was warned after getting too close to deer for a picture.

Wildlife photographer Duncan Eames said: “It’s like chucking out time in a nightclub area. They’re all drunk on hormones and adrenalin – they don’t sleep for ages.

He added: “Last Saturday I saw this chap herding them on into the corner slowly. I told him how stupid he was."

During the rutting season top stags (red deer) and bucks (fallow deer) guard their harem of does day and night.

Fights between competing males can be gruesome and if they don’t lock antlers the prongs can gauge out eyes, knock out teeth or pierce throats.

Many of the five-and-a-half million people who visit the park each year are said to be unaware of the dangers posed to humans.

Forty-three-year-old hat designer Yuan Li, the woman who was gored last month, has since called on Richmond Council to erect enclosures for the deer.

But Mr Eames said it was “more and more likely” that the park would have to close for two months each year, and said it was a shame because the colours and the smells made autumn "a magical time of the year.”

He said: “My view is that they’re already in an enclosed area, because that’s the park.”