Culling Reds - Scotland

[DL.]

Read this interesting article. If you make a cull plan you decide what proportions of age/gender groups you are looking to achieve. Am I the only one reading this, thinking they are protesting too much?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-h ... s-20875309

I am aware that snh are putting pressure on estates, requiring cull figures to be backed up with game dealer records, but still... The hard winters, does anyone have an opinion on what change those effected?

[Scotsgun]

Anyone stating that the Red Deer population is in demise in Scotland is talking pish. There's never been more deer on the hills but due to the irresponsible actions of some estates there are areas in which the natural environment is being hammered due to massive over-populations. The SNH has responded by issuing mandatory blanket quotas which can do not consider the individual local , heards or natural fauna. Often the blanket cull quotas do as much damage.

Estates make their money by selling stalks. There is now a generation of stalkers out there who are trophy hunters, They aren't interested in culling young, old or infirm beasts, they have no interest in the health and well being of the deer; they are solely there to bag themselves a big stag, get their picture taken with it and perhaps have it mounted for their wall. Obviously the more big stags they have on the ground, the more the estates can make by selling the stalks. More stags requires more hinds, results in more young, results in more deer. The fact is that a big stag, a majestic 12 point Royal (a Monarch) was a unique sight because so few lived that long in order to get that big. Now with estates providing supplementary feed during winter and maximising the amount of big stags, these big stags have become almost common place.

Its a shame but neither the SNH nor the estates and land owners have come up with a compromise. If only the estates would stop chasing the individual big money trophy hunters and instead treated their stalking ground and deer more like fishing, they could make stalking more affordable and open up stalking to more people. This would result in you and i being able to afford more and in doing so drop the numbers of deer to a more manageable numbers. Just go ahead and get a quote for a single mid season hind stalk, include the carcass fee, don't forget the gillie's tip and then consider whether the estates are defeating themselves by being solely interested in attracting the few, big paying trophy hunters.

Something has to give, but the SNH's enforced, blanket quotas won't encourage the estates to conform. It only raises their hackles and creates resentment.

[DL.]

M, I agree there is a disproportionate level of pricing between the costs of deer stalking for the trophy hunting tourists, and the people who are willing to roll their sleeves up and shoot cull beasts all day.

If the gent in the original post hasn't got the quota of mature stags on his ground, they may have been shot on a neighbouring estate, or perhaps, since the financial crisis, like you say, they may have been taken on his own estate to raise revenue.

This link should lead to the details of estates selling days.

http://www.landgazette.co.uk/index.php/ ... adm-survey

[Eric S]

Sound like more paperwork to me

[Provider]

The estates are definitely under pressure to carry out the culls as per the yearly count and the SNH quota as if the estates don't do it the SNH will. A good point made by scotsgun that the estates could make stalking more affordable so more people could do it but then again that's where the esatates make the money by people coming to stalk and renting the estate lodge and paying for catering etc. I people came on a daily basis the estates would not be able to continue.