An update
Thanks very much for your interest in assisting with deer captures we're really grateful for your support. There has been a change in our schedule for the New Forest deer captures, these will now take place in November 2023, and we wanted to let you know as soon as possible.
The deer captures and GPS collaring in the New Forest are part of the TickSolve research project which aims to develop solutions to manage tick-borne disease risk and understand how risks will change with woodland expansion and climate change. The project is working in two areas of the UK which are hotspots for ticks, and tick-borne diseases, Aberdeenshire, and the New Forest. To reach our target number of deer to be GPS collared in Aberdeenshire, the team leading the captures are needing to stay a while longer in Scotland this winter, and we have decided to move our capture dates for the New Forest to November '23. You can read more about the GPS collaring in Scotland here, we will use a similar approach in the New Forest to capture roe and fallow deer using long nets. Volunteers on a capture can assist the team either with 'beating' to move deer towards nets or with 'net minding'. Previous animal handling experience is needed for volunteers to assist with net minding and training on how to handle captured deer will be provided on the capture day during a briefing along with risk assessments.
TickSolve is a 4-year project funded by NERC where we are looking to develop solutions to manage tick-borne disease risk in collaboration with stakeholders. Within each of the study landscapes we are studying how landscape structure affects deer and other wildlife hosts of ticks and tick-borne pathogens using trail cameras to assess wildlife communities and by carrying out tick sampling. Field sampling is being carried out across 60 woodland patches which vary in size and connection to other woodlands. The deer GPS collar data will add to our understanding of how deer move across landscapes and their role in distributing ticks.
Please don't hesitate to get in touch with us at
info_ticksolve@ceh.ac.uk with any questions about the project and the GPS collaring, we would be happy to share further information and look forward to meeting you in November!
Kind regards,
Caroline, Tom, Mark, John, from the TickSolve team