Page 24 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #12

Centuriesoffelling
andovergrazinghave
ledtoendlessmilesof
treeless moorland.
estates with high deer numbers, all wedded
to the traditional land management model.
Red deer are not going to recognise estate
boundaries, and the man charged with
reducing the reserve’s red deer herd to
an ‘acceptable’ level, and therefore finds
himself in the ‘crosshairs’, is Head
Ranger, Innes MacNeill.
“We all want healthier deer living in a
better habitat,” Innes says, “but how do
you tell a stalker, who has worked all his
life to nurture his deer forest, that he has
too many? It’s like telling someone their
life’s work has been for nothing.”
A rise in eating
deer meat
Sales of deer meat, or venison, have
been increasing in recent years. This
is due to the realisation that venison
is a red meat option containing more
protein and less fat than beef. Currently,
only 65 per cent of UK demand for
venison is met with home-grown
meat, with the rest imported
from countries such as New
Zealand, Poland and Spain.
By 2020, it is estimated that
50 per cent of UK venison
sales will be imported.
Find out more at:
scottish-venison.info.
24 BBC Wildlife
In the Scottish
Highlands, red
deer tend to
wander the hills
during the day
and make their
way down to lower
ground at night.
So, does it all come down to numbers?
Deer are browsing animals and, at
high densities, they will overwhelm
the vegetation and eat all regenerating
saplings, leaving just older trees to die off
one by one, over time. In the absence of
natural predators – for now at least – deer
populations need managing if Scotland’s
wild places are to reach their full ecological
potential, and if, as a country, Scotland
is to expand its woodland cover, which is
currently among the lowest in Europe.
The expertise and experience of
professional deerstalkers is key to this,
but the philosophy behind deer stalking
will need to move away from the emphasis
on the trophy to a more rounded hunting
experience in an increasingly natural
setting, in the company of a well-paid
professional guide.
Cherished landscape
Flurries of snow come and go as I crest
the summit of Stac Pollaidh and reflect
on the vast landscape below me. A golden
eagle circles on a distant thermal and the
occasional chatter of a red grouse carries on
the breeze. This landscape is seductive. It is
raw and, superficially at least, it is wild. It
is also loved by the majority of people who
live and work in it – and those who visit it.
Yet this land hides a history of ecological
wounds that few people see, simply
because they’re not conditioned to look.
Centuries of felling, burning and
overgrazing have led to endless miles of
treeless moorland, so often held up as
postcards of a nature-rich Scotland. As a
society, we’ve somehow arrived at a point
where we celebrate, cherish and even
actively conserve these ecological vacuums
that support not only fewer species than
they once did – than they could again
– but, in many parts of the Highlands,
fewer people. This landscape could be
more – so much more.
Breaking through
I raise my binoculars and trace the path
of a deer fence, which bullishly cuts across
the moorland into the distance. The fence
has been built to keep deer in, or perhaps
to keep deer out. Either way, the fence itself
is symbolic, as it mirrors the divisive debate
over what this landscape should be. The
potential for an ecologically richer future,
across much of the Highlands, is stuck
inside a cultural fence.
It’s a fence that has less to do with red
deer and more to do with people and
their deep-seated belief systems. The deer
problem, if it exists, is actually a people
problem, 200 years in the making.
There is common ground. Everyone
shares a desire to see healthy red deer in
a healthy landscape and most would prefer
them to be viewed as neither ‘monarch’ nor
menace, but as an integral part of a naturally
functioning ecosystem. If we’re to break out
of the fence, however, we need to see the
Scottish landscape differently. We need to
recognise its shortcomings and stretch our
perspective further than land being valued
according to how many animals can be shot
on it. Perhaps then Scotland’s deer forests
will be full of trees.
PETER CAIRNS is a photographer
and director of Scotland: The Big
Picture – scotlandbigpicture.com.
FIND OUT MORE The Association
of Deer Management Groups:
deer-management.co.uk.
December 2018