The Deer Stalker | Scottish Highlands

Описание: : PLEASE READ BEFORE WATCHING :

This is a video from my experience of Red Deer Stalking in the Scottish Highlands.

I wanted to explain and bring to light the job deer stalking involves, why it's a necessity and the measures taken to manage the red deer population.

1. In Scotland SNH (Scottish Natural Heritage) applies a "cull" to each estate. You must carefully select the right stags to take off the hill. For example the weak, the elderly, the injured or the stags that have dangerously shaped antlers which could harm other stags during the rut (mating season) when they fight.

2. You may walk a whole day passing many big, impressive looking stags which you don't shoot, as you hope they'll mate with the hinds and produce a stronger gene pool. If at the end of the day you haven't come across the right animal to take off the hill, you go back home without having shot a stag but happy to have seen so many impressive deer on the hill knowing they'll produce a stronger new generation.

3. If you come across the right animal to shoot or "shootable stag" there isn't an ounce of it wasted. The meat is sold to many restaurants, butchers and private buyers as the most organic and lean of meats with zero cholesterol - the organs or less attractive cuts of meat are sold and added into dog food or created into medicines and sold overseas. The tendons are cut out and used for surgical stitches known as sutures. The antlers are created into walking sticks or again, created into medicines and sold overseas.

4. If you don't shoot your cull of deer, the Scottish government will employ contract killers to come in and slaughter the number required before it is deemed you have a balance between land and animals living on this land. They will not carefully select which animals to take off the hill as the deer stalker does, but their job is to kill any animal until you have the balance.

5. The last Scottish wolf was killed several centuries ago, with no natural predators the red deer population grew and grew until their numbers reached such a large amount the land could not sustain them. They caused huge problems to our native pine forests which now has no chance of regeneration.

6. If the deer weren't managed and left to grow freely the population would explode, this would cause mass die off's due to disease and starvation as the land could not support these numbers. This would inevitably cause an uproar and people would ask why weren't the deer being managed / looked after?

7. Hunting of any form in this day and age is cause for controversy however, the pro's of managing red deer in this way far outweigh the cons. It is mostly down to a lack of understanding in which I find myself explaining to people why it is a necessary part of Scottish life.

This video will hopefully give you a small insight into why it exists and continues to do so. I have no idea if this video will gain any traction, but I thought I'd take the necessary precautions in attempting to explain if it does.

Hope you enjoy!