Deer Damage To UK Forests, Crops May Call For 500,000-Animal Cull - Telegraph

[hatrack]

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.

EDIT

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/ecology/3463388/500000-deer-must-be-culled-to-protect-countryside-from-damage-by-herds.html

[123infinity]

1. Lots of deerburgers for hungry people.

Just sayin'
....

[msongs]

2. why not reintroduce wolves to Britain, they USED To live there - >

http://www.wolftrust.org.uk/whyreintroduce.html

and were hunted to extinction in the British Isles, although wolves are making a comeback on the continent.

Msongs

[Cattledog]

3. I agree with Wolves!

[happyslug]

4. And Compete with the pumas in Britain?

Reports of Pumas in Britain:
http://www.scottishbigcats.co.uk/englishnews491.htm

http://www.messybeast.com/big_cat.htm

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_kmafp/is_/ai_kepm446012

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1001/1001977_black_panthers_alive_in_the_uk.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/beware-big-cats-police-spot-two-black-panthers-on-prowl-around-welsh-farm-641957.html

The biggest problem with pumas being in the wild in Britain is how did they get to Britain. The best explanation are they are product of private collections that escaped over the last 200 or so years and enough escaped to form a breeding population. A second problem is unlike the other branch of the cat family (i.e. the lion, tigers and Leopards) Pumas LEARN to hunt from their mothers (Lion, Tigers, and Leopards are instinctive hunters). Thus how did these Pumas survive in Britain where the main prey of Pumas in North America is the White Tail Deer, which is a lot smaller and nimbler then the Red Deer of Europe (Red Deer of Europe is closely related to the Elk in North America, the Elk of Europe is closely related to the Moose of Europe not the elk of North America, yes the same names for different animals depending on location). Furthermore how could a small breeding population adapt to hunting in Britain, given that the parents were themselves domesticated cats (i.e. did NOT learn to hunt from their mothers)?

Can Pumas learn to hunt Red Deer? Yes, Pumas and their close relatives can learn to hunt new game (Cheetah may be a close relative and also "learns" to hunt, the relationship between the Cougar and the Cheetah is an item of hot debate among researchers at the present time). Pumas, unlike Cheetahs are a night animal and thus tend not to be seen. Last year (2007) brought a report of a Puma in Western Pennsylvania. Generally these are dismissed, but it was reported by a Game officer who is familiar with the Animal. Officially, Pumas only exist in the Everglades in the Eastern US, but we have had reports up and down the Appalachian Mountains for decades. Most reports are dismissed as mistakes i.e saw a Bobcat can called in a Puma, but many such reports mention the long tail, the Bobcat has a snub for a tail, the Puma a long tail.

A further problem in an area where Pumas are NOT hunted, pumas generally take up personnel hunting area of about 10-300 square miles (Depending on game available, the less game the greater the territory, males hold a wider area then females with females and male areas overlapping). A Typical American County is only 20 square miles, Thus an American County may only hold four Females and one male Cougars if there is plenty of game. Looking it at a different angle, that is only five cats per county, such a low population would be hard to find (Hunting Cougars actually increases the cougar population in an area, the cats are less able to fight off other cats do to hunting pressure so more cougars can live in the same area). In the east, Cougars are NOT hunted (They are hunted in some Western States). Thus you have Cougars claiming the largest territory they can hold. This reduce the number of cougars per sq mile. Furthermore Cougars are NOT fast breeders. Unlike house cars they only have one litter per year and then only one to two kittens. A female may only breed for ten years. Thus, the maximum number of new Cats a female Cougar can produce over her lifetime is 20 (And most cars will have ten or less kittens over their life time). These 10 kittens must not only replace their parents but any non-breeding cats (and cats that die BEFORE breeding).

Given the widespread elimination of Cougars in the Eastern US, it would take decades if not centuries for the cougar to recover (unlike Domestic Cats which breed like rabbits). The same thing for any Cougar "invasion" of Britain, it would take decades if not Centuries for the Cougar to spread, thus the low report may reflect a low population, NOT that cougars do not exist. The "Great American Ghost" did not get that nick name for being seen, the cougar has had to live with people for over 10,000 years (Ever since the First Native Americans entered North America) and has survived when other cars, including American relatives to the Lion, have all gone extinct (The Jaguar is of the lion branch of the Cat Family, but rarely seen north of Mexico).

For more on Cheetahs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheetah

More on the Cougar/Puma/Panther:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar

Search for Cougars in Pennsylvania:
http://pennsylvania.sierraclub.org/PAChapter/Newsletter/Sylvanian_win01.pdf
http://aginfo.psu.edu/news/2004/1/mountainlions.html
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/news/resource/res2005/05-1220-cougars.aspx
http://www.theforester.com/pa-mountain-lion/pennsylvania-cougar.htm
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08307/924720-358.stm

And hoaxes are common in this area:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08069/863382-358.stm

[One_Life_To_Give]

5. Lag time

Since the system is already out of balance it would result in unaturally large swings in populations of both Predator and Prey. As the system spends decades trying to come back into balance. It would take some Human intervention to prevent the deer from being all but wiped out and many starving wolves from roaming the countryside.

[joshcryer]

7. They reintroduced wolves here in the midwest, and had to feed the deer/elk during a bad season.

Basically were dropping big buckets of grain for them to eat because the wolves would just kill them off. Stable ecosystems are really really *really* hard to restart like that.

[joshcryer]

6. That's the most vicious thing I've ever heard!

What! Reintroduce carnivores that will eat them alive, vs culling them and feeding local populations.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. As your link says, reintroducing wolves would hurt individual farmers

so even if sheep farming overall would be able to survive the reintroduction, we'd have to set up an extensive compensation programme for the farmers. When you consider that the particular problem in the OP is lowland woodland, the arguments from your link about the 'uneconomic' Highland sheep industry don't really apply - that organisation is advocating reintroducing wolves to the sparsely populated Highlands of Scotland. The number of wolves needed to control lowland deer numbers would cause huge problems with livestock.