The vice-chair of Perth -based Scottish Gamekeepers Association has warned that a controversial early cull of female deer is going to leave orphaned fawns to starve.
On August 31 Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) began the out-of-season national cull, which Peter Fraser believes would not have been needed if “it had managed woodland deer properly”.
The FLS action, authorised by Scotland’s nature body NatureScot, is being carried out across Scotland’s public forests, many weeks before the official start of the season on October 21.
Mr Fraser says at this time red deer calves or roe fawns - between six and 12 weeks old - are so small and fragile that they are entirely reliant upon their mothers’ milk and guidance for survival.
Although the marksmen hired to conduct the cull are trained to kill the youngsters before their mothers, he said thick ground vegetation and bracken that can grow more than 6ft tall often conceals them.
He fears this means they will escape being shot but will starve instead, suffering a slow and lingering death.
This is the third year that FLS has ordered an early cull to try to reduce extensive tree damage.
However, Mr Fraser believes the only reason forest damage was so bad in Scotland was the agency’s “mismanagement” and in particular shooting “the wrong animals at the wrong time”.
About a fifth of Scotland’s wild deer population will be culled over the next five years as part of a blueprint to protect up to 150 million trees in national forests and land that FLS has said are vulnerable to damage.
Deer numbers across Scotland have doubled to more than a million since 1990 and the annual economic impact of deer damage on FLS-managed land is estimated at £3 million.
Officials have awarded a five-year tender worth between £25m to £31m for 10 regional culling contracts, which will be licensed by NatureScot.
But the SGA claim several of the marksmen hired have contacted the organisation anonymously to say they were “uncomfortable” with the policy.
Mr Fraser, who spent 45 years managing the species, says the early September start places unfair pressure on deer managers.
“I have been managing deer a long time and youngsters will be left, no question,” he said.
“In forestry, even in a clearing, you will get one shot and the mother will be off into cover.
“You might shoot a baby but then lose the mother and a twin so matching mothers and youngsters in family groups then becomes difficult thereafter.
“In areas like the west, deer managers will be encountering bracken 6ft or 7ft high regularly. It is very difficult to get deer out of cover like that.
“I don’t see the point of this cull when they could wait a few weeks more and get the job done more effectively, without the animal welfare implications.
“Forest damage is so high in Scotland today because, for years, FLS policy has meant that they have shot the wrong animals at the wrong time.
“There has been no selection and no thought put into creating forests which are designed for deer control.”
When a master buck is killed, he said there is an influx of young bucks challenging for the vacant area, resulting in more damage such as bark stripping.
Mr Fraser contrasted FLS’s approach with the management of deer on open hills, where he said the Scottish Government’s target of 10 animals per square metre has been achieved in the majority of areas.
An FLS spokesperson said: “We are not aware of any evidence ever having been presented to support the assertion [of] young deer being left to die as a result of our culling operation.
“As responsible land managers we would be among the first to encourage anyone with any evidence of best practice not being followed to report this to deer management regulator, NatureScot.”
A NatureScot spokesperson said: “Deer welfare is key and NatureScot takes into account the period of greatest welfare risk based on the dependency of young, which in Scotland is the period between April 1 to August 31.”
