Red deer
Edwin Landseer’s Monarch of the Glen.
Creative Commons - credit Karora
Red deer are very common animals in Scotland and Rannoch is no exception. Residents and visitors in Kinloch Rannoch will be familiar with the sight a group of stags wandering the streets and spending the day in the nearby fields and plantations.
The males are called stags and the females are called hinds. Only the stags have antlers and they only have them approaching and during the autumnal breeding season. The antlers are outgrowths of the bone of the skull and it takes a lot of energy and calcium to be able to grow them every year. The antlers start by being covered in velvet (soft tissue full of blood vessels). The velvet is shed when its nutrient supplying job is done. The stag will rub its antlers on saplings to help remove the velvet. Sometimes the shed antlers are gnawed for their calcium and this is not done just by deer but also by other animals such as squirrels.
Rutting (the breeding season) occurs from September to November. At this time the stags can be more aggressive as they compete with others for the right to mate with the herd of hinds. The gestation period is 8 months and calves are born mid-May to mid-July.
Deer stalking is of economic importance to estates and deer numbers are kept high for stalking purposes. There is a debate about the numbers that are culled and about what level of population should be maintained. If land managers wish to grow trees deer pressure requires fences to be in place or the deer will eat the saplings. The debate can be heated.
On flat land a red deer fence needs to be at least two metres in height. If there is high land outside of the fence it may need to be higher. Where burns pass through water gates are needed. The need for fencing has produced a thriving industry.
The John Muir Trust and the National Trust for Scotland have used double electric fences of a lower height on East Schiehallion and at Ben Lawers. The fences are ‘stock’ height and the principle is that the horizontal distance is to great for a deer to leap. As far as I know this works. A possible problem comes in the winter when snow builds up against the fence - less of a problem perhaps with climate change.
Increasingly red deer are farmed and the Innerhadden Estate at Kinloch Rannoch has a deer farm.
Red deer in Scotland are said to have been a woodland species and are now to be found on the open hillside since forests are so diminished in Scotland. In other parts of the world they are preyed upon by wolves and this would have been the case in Scotland in the past. Since there are now no apex predators in Scotland mankind determines the numbers. Reintroduction of the the wolf is advocated by some, again a heated debate.
Red deer contribute to the Scottish economy through stalking, fencing, venison, tourism and also horn carving. There is a horn carver near Lawers on the north side of Loch Tay. Even the antlers are quite valuable and they are sold at the Highland Adventure Safari Café.
The roaring of stags in autumn is an inspiring experience and it is especially pleasing to be able to hear it close to your house or garden.
Red deer are Britain’s largest land mammal and have been the muse for much art, for example Landseer’s ‘Monarch of the Glen’.
There is a possibility that interbreeding with Sika Deer (introduced time the UK from Asia) may reduce the size of the Scottish red deer in the fullness of time.
Red deer stag - Creative Commons - credit Donald Macauley
YouTube video of red deer by Syd Hutchison