70 http://www.rifleshootermagazine.co.ukenables you to correlate the birth
weight, the year and the final outcome
for the individual.
This was a thing I started to do a
number of years ago when on the
Knoydart peninsula. Not only did it
show a seasonal variation in birth
weight, it showed the average distance
travelled by females as opposed to
males. The furthest travelling stag I
have while on Knoydart was culled 25
miles away in his five-year of life.
Whereas the females on both Knoydart
and Ardnamurchan travel only three to
five miles from where they were born.
Seasonal variations in birth weight
undoubtedly correlate to an animal’s
adult weight and performance. All of
our really big stags were born heavy to
good hinds dominating the better
grazing areas and stay ahead of the
pack for their entire life. No shock
there, many of you will say, but Ibelieve that by being involved with
them at an early age it inspires you to
allow them to mature and see what
nature has in store for them.
At this time of year, the stags are
well on the way to growing this year’s
set of antlers. Although the genetic
features of the individual are
consistent, how they have wintered
and what nutrition they have had will
generate differences in antler mass,
point size and, on occasion, number.
It is worth keeping an annual record
of some of your better stags as you
can use it as a reference to see how
individuals are doing and also to
decide which your most successful
bloodlines are. I am always in awe that
deer can grow a full set of antlers in
just four months.
As we head into the summer, the
stags have moved into their bachelor
groups and a lot of the older and bigger
stags become quite reclusive and start
to restrict their movements. There is
nothing surer that, in this period, one
thing that big stags hate more than
anything else is repeated disturbance.
In a few short weeks, it will be time
to oil the boots and get ready for
another season on the hill. This year,
not only will we have an eye on the
things that we have just discussed but
we should be trying to balance this with
the poor performance of the deer over
the last few winters. Taking the
opportunity to take a record of the
mature stags that you see and buildingthis into your population model for your
deer group is so important.
This year also sees another review
of deer management, particularly on
the open range in the Highlands where
all of the deer management groups will
be assessed to see if they are
delivering the ‘public interest’ and
managing the designated sites toward
favourable condition. We can only hope
that the current administration and its
agencies are capable of separating this
iconic natural resource from their thirst
for land reform and greater regulatory
control. I have heard it said on a
number of occasions: “If you want to
ruin anything, give it to government”.
In the season that has just
ended, the private sector delivered one
of the highest culls on record. Many
experienced deer managers are now
calling on some deer group areas to
exercise caution to be sure that
there are sufficient animals in the
right age classes to enable deer to
function properly.
It will be interesting to see what
comes out from this SNH review and
also the external review of deer
management, which will be published
this year – no doubt we will discuss
this again in the near future. We
cannot afford to be remote either by
our location or thinking – this is going
to be a year where everyone with a
passion for deer needs to be
prepared to stand up and make their
voices heard.NORTH OF THE BORDER
»
“I AM ALWAYS IN AWE THAT DEER CAN GROW A FULL
SET OF ANTLERS IN JUST FOUR MONTHS”
ABOVE: Large healthy
calves tend to
become large
healthy adultsBELOW: Now is the
time to monitor your
‘recruitment rate’