500,000 deer must be culled to protect UK countryside from damage by herds

Culls of half a million deer are needed to protect Britain's countryside from being damaged by increasingly large herds of the animals.

Jasper Copping, The Telegraph 15 Nov 08;

Deer numbers have soared thanks to a series of mild winters, tree-planting schemes and an absence of natural predators. They are thought to be at their highest level for almost 1,000 years.

But wildlife experts and farmers have warned that they are wreaking havoc in many areas, destroying woodland, crops and even gardens.

Now, the Deer Initiative, a government-backed organisation which advises landowners on how to manage the animals, has said it would like to see the numbers culled increase drastically to half a million a year.

The organisation is involved in negotiations with landowners to co-ordinate a series of culls to take place over this winter.

Peter Watson, from the Deer Initiative, said the population of wild deer had now risen to almost two million and the numbers being culled had not kept pace with the increase.

"The current numbers being culled are not enough. We need to be culling about 500,000 deer and we are not even close to that.

"There is a significant number of lowland woodlands that are in an unsatisfactory condition because of deer impacts. It is in those areas where we are working with landowners to get the habit back into a better condition. Almost inevitably, that means culling more deer, because people haven't traditionally been culling enough.

"We're not simply calling for a huge increase in culling. We are trying to address local issues. That might mean an increase in culling, and I think it generally does. But the aim is to address the issues, not deer numbers per se."

However, the proposed increase has proved highly controversial.

John Robins, from the campaigning group Animal Concern, said: "Not enough has been done to look at alternatives to lethal control, like giving deer contraceptives.

"In some areas, current culling practices are totally unacceptable in a civilised society. We are extremely concerned that some culls are of pregnant deer and hinds when they are feeding calves."

Among the areas of England worst effected by large deer populations are East Anglia, Northamptonshire, Herefordshire, Exmoor, Oxfordshire and parts of the Midlands.

Last week, the Deer Initiative, which is funded by the government and its other partner organisations, held meetings with landowners in the east of England to discuss ways to control numbers there.

David Hooton, the organisation's regional representative, said: "In some areas, like Suffolk, Norfolk and Hertfordshire, culling has already started to increase.

"But deer management is a very gradual game and it takes a long time to get it right. What no one wants is to be indiscriminate. We need to carry out monitoring and research as well. We are not simply interested in culling, for culling's sake."

The organisation is also trying to increase the marketing of venison, to provide a further incentive for landowners to cull more deer.

Many culls have started in recent weeks, as the season for deer runs from November until the end of March.

Among the Deer Initiative's partners who carry out culls on their own land are the Forestry Commission, the National Trust and the Woodland Trust.

Culls of 500,000 would be a huge increase on current levels, which sees around 350,000 deer killed in the UK each year.

It follows warnings from wildlife experts that the mammals are having "negative impacts" across the country.

The animals have a ferocious appetite and can strip trees of bark and leaves, destroying the nesting sites of popular birds and affecting song birds such as the nightingale which rely upon the undergrowth for food. Endangered small mammals such as the dormouse also live in the thick undergrowth.

In addition, the deer have been blamed for devouring native flowers such as bluebells which provide a vital source of nectar for insects.

Deer can also transmit diseases such as bovine tuberculosis and foot-and-mouth disease to livestock and cause road accidents.

The fast growing population is thought to be the muntjac deer, which first escaped into the English countryside from Woburn Park in Bedfordshire around 100 years ago.

It is now the third most common breed of deer in Britain, behind the native roe deer and the fallow deer, which were introduced by the Normans when they invaded Britain in the 11th century. Britain's only other native deer is the red deer.