Red deer - how long to establish a huntable population?

Jonher

Well-Known Member
We've had several reports of red deer in our terrain, with sightings of about 5-6 animals!

We are not permitted to hunt them at the moment and obviously will not be allowed to until there is a sustainable population, the only real threat I think would be lynx taking the young or RTA's!

Does anybody have an idea on roughly how long it would take to establish a huntable population?

I know it's a bit of a difficult question to answer but are we talking 5 years, 10 years?

Thanks
 
How close is the nearest population. If we are talking hinds the scent could bring stags in from a wide area. Areas of low population suddenly have large populations of stags closing in. Within a couple of years if the population is stable you could be culling wandering stags. That is if you have a local population near your ground. We found this on Kinloch Perthshire where a few hinds would draw stags in around the rut. Jim
 
In my area the first reds were seen in the mid sixtys by a local farmer but there were only a few , they have been added to by escapee's one from an enclosure the other from a deer farm.
According to the now wildlife trust warden there was an attempt to count them a few years ago, if i recollect he said they roughly counted 80 or so hinds and i cant remember how many stags in nearly 3000 hectares of reserve.

The most i have filmed this month is 33 out in one go, so i presume there would be more in the other 6000 or more acres .
EN has a Deer management group operating within the reserve and all the adjecent land is tied up by a handfull of stalkers.
There seems to be enough to go round . but every year i see less and less big stags so they seem to be taking a hammering .
I did hear that the DMG had put a stop on culling stags until a proper count had been taken but that remains to be seen, DF
 
Thanks for the replies.

I'm not sure where the local stable population is but I'm meeting a friend tomorrow who should know so I'll re-post when I have more information. 95% of out terrain is forestry so there is a strong chance the number of animals is greater that those recorded.

I've never hunted red deer so the possibility of potentially doing so on our terrain in a few years would be great :D

Just have to wait for the wild boar to work their way over now :D
 
I would expect on clean ground with plenty of forest cover that the reds will form small family groups as opposed to herds. The body wieghts should be good if there's plenty of food and you would expect fecundity to be good also with yearlings achieving sufficient body wieght to breed. So potentially there could be a steady increase in numbers if predation ,disease , rta's and hunters dont take a heavy toll of the initial population. I suppose what will decide the matter is whether the reds conflict with existing land management . Possibly not everyone may be as pleased as you to have them about. Good luck and i look forward to you posting the first trophy!
 
Thanks pitiliedon,

At the moment there is no permitted hunting of the red deer, hunting will only be permitted when a sufficient number are resident in the terrain and even then hunting will be tightly controlled.

Spoke to my friend today and he said there are a couple of local herds just a few km's away and that a heavily pregnant hind was recently seen, so things are looking positive!

Thanks again for all the reples, I'll post up any progress or updates.
 
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