Killing deer at night - how Scotland is failing its wildlife - part 1
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- Опубліковано 15 бер 2022
- You want a healthy herd of deer, in numbers that don’t cause environmental damage, and visible enough to admire in Scotland’s beautiful Highlands? Apparently, the Scottish government doesn’t want that. It wants deer slaughtered at night. Scottish deer manager Niall Rowantree, with deer scientist Dr Cathy Mayne, explains how the Scotland Government is failing its most iconic animal, and how the current massacres of animals in the Highlands will not solve the problems they set out to solve.
Niall runs West Highland Hunting www.westhighland-hunting.co.uk
For Niall’s portable winch, search PCW3000
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Why shoot deer?
There are more than two million red, roe, fallow, sika, muntjac and Chinese water deer in Britain’s countryside and semi-urban areas, the highest level for 1,000 years. Numbers have doubled since 1999, according to the Deer Initiative, the UK government’s deer agency.
Deer are an attractive and an important part of our wildlife. However, they have no natural predator in the UK so numbers must be sensibly and strategically managed to keep them in balance with their habitat and to prevent damage to crops, trees, woodland flora, gardens and other wildlife.
Deer cause £4.5 million-worth (Forestry Commission Scotland) of damage to plantations and other commercial woodlands in Scotland. Crop damage is estimated at £4.3m a year according to DEFRA, with the greatest damage on cereal crops in east and south-west England.
More than 8,000 hectares (Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology) of woodland with SSI status is currently in ‘unfavourable’ or ‘recovering’ condition due to deer impacts such as browsing and fraying. Deer can also influence the variety of wildlife in woodlands and other habitats by altering structural and plant species diversity. According to the University of East Anglia’s Dr Paul Dolman, that has resulted in a 50% decline in woodland bird numbers where deer are present, impacting particularly on nightingales, blackcaps, chiffchaffs and warblers.
Deer are susceptible to Bovine TB and may be responsible for the transmission of TB to cattle. They are also the likely driver behind the UK’s increasing tick population (Scharlemann et al 2008).
Happily, venison is a delicious meat. It is wild, natural and free range, and - almost fat-free - it is one of the healthiest meats available today. Results from research commissioned by the Game-to-Eat campaign (Leatherhead Food International Research 2006) suggest that there are real health benefits to eating game. Venison is high in protein, low in saturated fatty acids and contains higher levels of iron than any other red meat.
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One man operation, one man job as it has been for ever
a keeper i knew at invercauld stabbed his leg , he was bleeding a hind we shot at night , Johnny Fraser was his name , i wonder if he is still keepering , i was only a 16 yo trainee and had to take charge of the situation and get him medical help , scary stuff and shows what is silly about knives in the dark !
Another very interesting and informative video. Always good to see these wonderful animals being managed so professionally with a keen regard to best practice.
Niall Rowantree imparts so much knowledge very much looking forward to the next one.
what will happen when every forest is deer-fenced then everything shot out of said area, like whats happening all over scotland?
I live in nz and even we know why fences only work 9 months a year. See the snow falls and freezes and the deer hop over the fence and as there’s no cover for them out side they stay and when snow melts they’re stuck inside. Hunters are employed to cull these deer for the larder at least the meat isn’t wasted.
Why don’t you just sell permits and tags to have the hunting population take these deer? Money made, no money spent
I love the metal deer drag. Greetings from a brother hunter across the Atlantic.
Cheers
That looked like a carry on film! And all this for I stag! Wow!
Deer shooting at night I find extremely easy if you have some kind of night vision, just walk right up to them, as close as 20 yards some times
Great videos always love them keep up the good work
One of your best
Good video👌🏼
Interesting. Looking forward to part 2
The man should be running the Scottish countryside, where will Scotland end up by doing away with men like Niall, they should thank their lucky stars men like this are still available with their knowledge and expertise. Regards.
i see it as a means to an end. the deer population in the uk during the pandemic has grow out of all proportion to its previous level and sometimes drastic situations call for drastic solutions the damaged a herd can do is incredible and in quite a sort time . Besides they taste great with brussels and roast spuds
Wow i thought the first Stag would be like 2-3 years old. Must be the tough environment. I think animals should be hunted when they are most active. The wild boar in Germany is hardly huntable if you exclude the night time. Its just important that the animals have a time in where they feel safe. Doesnt matter if its during the day or the night as long as they arent hunted 24/7 365 days a year.
But the foxes get shot 24/7 365 absolutely ridiculous ! They get shot when pregnant! Shot when they have young dependent cubs that are left to starve! There is no wildlife around where I live anymore the foxes are shot to within the brink of extinction,the badgers have had the same treatment and there’s hardly a rabbit the country has gone mad they’re using military grade equipment to wipe out all the wildlife it’s a total joke !
offer some "hunting vacation packages" to foreigners and you can not only help the problem but also generate revenue for the local businesses. Set it up, make it available and I'm 100% coming! - from Canada. lol
Very interesting.
I must admit, I do sometimes wonder why estates don't form public hunting groups with high standards.
Minimum membership requirement DS2 and an estate accompanied stalk, grallock and recovery interview process. Providing the stalker is deemed capable let them pay a yearly fee, which allows them to stalk a fixed no. of days each year, to be booked in advance. 2 way radio requirement for checking location and let them go.
You could have a shoot and take agreement, or a shoot and leave the carcas agreement.
Similar to farms having foxing or pidgeon permissions... just with a little more regulation.
There would be those that may only attend once a year and took what they shot and others that stalked several times and took only a couple.
I sometimes feel like the preference seems to be to 'avoid' making the best of a situation.
Maybe I'm missing some significant liability issues here, but like I say, farmers seem to manage arranging things with willing shooters (to the benefit of all), so why not estates?
My two penneth for what it's worth.
Scotland is the best place for wildlife in the whole United Kingdom there are animals there that have been gone for years and now are returning. Like Beaver and birds of prey ect
They are now talking about wolf's coming bk to Scotland to help manage deer
The wolf part is rewilding,swapping out conservationists and rural life to a park like situation people can look on nature from the outside .
yes apparently its cruel to kill them quickly and cleanly by shooting but not cruel to let a pack of wolves chase them for 3 / 4 hours and then tear them to pieces. And the killing will be indiscriminate with no control
@@alanbush4192 it's not about the cruelty it's about the management and the fact that they need help because there's not enough people to do it / want to.
@@MrPh30 yeah like the bison and other animals there trying to get back. Have a look at bear wood it's a place in the UK where bears and wolf's and wolverines live together in a park
Rewilding - creating a man made environment in place of a man made environment
Bushcraft new Zealand Australia 💊👽
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I hope you are vaccinated!
I thought it was illegal to shoot at night , what do the police say about it
I think you should try watching the film 😁 - / Charlie
No way hunting deer at night, sorry...this is the method of poachers, nothing to do with traditionelle hunting 🤮
Traditional hunting is just that, traditional hunting.. very different to culling and the meat being utilised in 5he larders
Unfortunately deer bread and the population gets to a stage where the land can not sustain the population and the deer die, the remaining animals are runts this shows when traditional hunters can not find trophies..l wandered some Scottish highlands one morning counting in xcess of 500 animals way to many (in my opinion) I videoed a mob of 34 stags wandered by at 50 yards, not one was a trophy. Would you rather see the animals controlled by culling or poisoned like they’re doing in NZ. The guys culling in Scotland are from my personal experience with them are very professional and take their job very seriously and would love to be able to work 9 to 5 like the majority of traditional hunters so they could spend evenings with family’s.
I live in New Zealand and every method of controlling deer has been used culling on foot, then meet hunting for export, then helicopter hunting for meet not to mention 1080 poison for the past 50 years where the poison is dropped from the air killing almost everything over vast areas..All this while traditional hunters come from all over the world to shoot some bloody good trophies… note animals do not starve to death in New Zealand
What about growing human population thats causing havoc on planet earth. Shouldn't it be culled to reduce numbers?
You first?
@@uncles2000 I think you are a waste of space. So, you should be first.
@@samreenahmad9264 Virture signaling from a keyboard virtue warrior. This is why no one will remember your name..
For me night shooting is morally wrong but sometimes essential.
The idea deer are the enemy of trees is just wrong imo trees need deer and deer need trees.
I understand you need to protect commercial plantations but complete no tolerance of deer in these areas is just wrong.
trees and deer also need wolves;
our unnatural removal of wolves in the US has caused immense problems, and we are putting them back in some places
I'm sorry but this is just false. You need predators to keep herbivores in check, and we killed all the wolves in this country centuries ago. Our native woodlands can't survive *because* deer are eating saplings before they can develop.
DEER KILLERS!!!! STOP KILLING MY LOVE, KIND, GENTLE, LOVABLE DEER!!! YOU'RE HEARTLESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Heartless but Full
Unfortunately deer don’t have any natural predators left so to protect woodland and to ensure the health of a deer population we as humans must keep the numbers to a natural level, I myself would rather be a deer that gets shot than livestock that dies at the abattoir! I’d suggest reading up on the subject of deer control if you feel strongly about it and that way you can become more informed on the matter
@@dominicjohnson8427 Not strictly true fella, there are lots of places in the world that have many predatory species that take Deer i suggest you read up on the subject and you could become more educated on the matter.
@@pegknife I was talking about deer species in the uk because the whole documentary was based in the uk specifically Scotland not all over world! But never the less if your talking about the USA where the wolf was eradicated and only recently reintroduced or New Zealand where deer were introduced into a country with no predators? I’m sure I have greater knowledge about worldwide deer species as it’s my main hobby and I go hunting deer in Scotland every month so I’d suggest you don’t jump to assumptions