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‘Deer need to be managed’
WHEN asked how many wild deer there are in Britain, British Deer Society (BDS) chief executive David McAuley replies ruefully: ‘Too many.’ The charity, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary, aims to ‘educate and inspire’ the public about deer, but also to impress upon them that they need management. ‘The Government has a current environmental policy about planting trees and deer are blamed for damaging them,’ observes Mr McAuley. ‘In fact, grey squirrels, beavers and humans also destroy trees, but deer are getting the blame. We need to agree that deer need to be managed, but it’s important this is carried out with a cull plan in place.’
The last official count was in 2006, when Britain was thought to have some two million deer (encompassing the six breeds: red, fallow, roe, Chinese water, sika and muntjac), but the present number is likely to exceed that by far—roe, sika and muntjac, for instance, are difficult to count because they inhabit woodland or undergrowth in small groups—and work is being done to establish hotspots.
No culling took place during covid lockdown, so numbers began to escalate then. ‘Humane culling is as much for the deer’s health as anything,’ explains Mr McAuley, who came to the BDS from a charity background rather than fieldsports. ‘I witnessed some very unhealthy deer after covid, including deer found dead from winter starvation in Scotland, but the problem is that we have to bring the public with us on the journey—to many people, deer are Bambi.’
The charity receives multiple public communications
