Landowners and stalkers 'fear the worst' over plans for new deer management regime

Stalkers and estates are bracing themselves for the imposition of major changes to deer management in Scotland, which they fear could wreck stalking businesses and have serious welfare impacts.

The Scottish Government is expected to approve a raft of measures to drive deer numbers down when it publishes its response on Wednesday to last year’s expert report on deer in Scotland.

The Deer Working Group (DWG) report was drawn up after concerns that deer herds have swollen to unmanageable levels, damaging woodland and peatlands. It is thought there could be a million deer in Scotland now, with perhaps 400,000 of those red deer. Conservationists say deer numbers should be cut by half or more.

Deer managers say they expect the Government to approve much of the report, and gamekeepers say they are expecting “the worst,” while conservationists say they expect the government to accept all the report’s recommendations.

Among those recommendations was an upper limit of 10 red deer per square kilometre the Highlands, a significant reduction of the population in some areas.

It said rules on night hunting should be relaxed, with the closed season for stags scrapped, and the open season for hinds extended until April.

The report also suggested a “planned cull approval system”, likely to mean NatureScot setting legally-enforceable targets each year for the number of deer estates must shoot. Under the current system voluntary agreements are negotiated between deer managers and the Government nature agency, with compulsory powers rarely used.

The report said the level of damage done by deer was unacceptable but some estates fear a drastic reduction in deer will mean not enough animals for paying clients to shoot.

On Tuesday, the Scottish Association of Gamekeepers (SGA) chairman Alex Hogg said: “We are bracing ourselves for the worst: a state-endorsed erosion of a Scottish wildlife icon.

“The report’s recommendations on lengthening the open season by around 15 weeks effectively legitimise year-round killing and remove the welfare protections groups such as ourselves fought hard to protect.

“We are also concerned for our members’ mental wellbeing. Effectively the Scottish Government will be asking them to kill and gralloch heavily pregnant females way into the spring. These are pregnant mums which will have moving young, bigger than the size of a hare, inside them.

“If politicians back this, perhaps they should be made to experience it first.”

The Association of Deer Management Groups, which operates the current largely voluntary system of deer management alongside Government agency NaturesScot, also expects big changes.

Chairman Richard Cooke said: “It’s a reasonable expectation that the Scottish Government will accept much of what the deer working group has recommended.”

Last year in response to the DWG report, Cooke said: “Fundamentally this report is about further heavy reductions in deer numbers which would have a devastating effect on an important rural industry in the remoter parts of Scotland.”

He said deer had become demonised, and the impacts of other herbivores such as sheep were being overlooked.

Mike Daniels, head of policy and land management for conservation charity the John Muir Trust, said: “We hope and expect the Scottish Government to accept all of the recommendations in the [DWG] report and to timetable their implementation as soon as possible.

“The independent expert group spent two years thoroughly researching and reviewing this issue in great detail. They have made clear and practical recommendations. It is essential these are all implemented in order to deliver the step change needed to tackle the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis we face.”

If the Government does accept most of the recommendations it is also likely to have major impacts on the deer management side of NatureScot. It has until now worked with DMGs on a voluntary basis, and staff will fear a greater element of compulsion could sour relations and make it more difficult to get their job done.