The following is the British Deer Society’s official statement on the Dolman Report, issued 7 March 2013 in “Deerbytes”, the BDS online newsletter:
The British Deer Society welcomes good science. It has yet to read Dr Dolman’s report in full, but has seen the sensationalist headlines calling yet again for an increased cull of deer across the UK.
The Society is wary of headlines such as 750,000 deer to be culled annually – this is not well-justified and sounds as if it offers rather an arbitrary figure, not one based on a very scientific approach. Further, as a percentage of the wider UK deer population, the BDS will be interested to see the methodology behind an estimation of 1.5m deer in the UK, which is 25% lower than a recent estimate by the Deer Initiative of deer in England and Wales.
The British Deer Society acknowledges that there are areas within the UK where there are far too many deer – such as the Arne Peninsula (where recent active management has more recently been effective in reducing densities and associated impacts), Ashdown Forest, and Thetford Forest where this research appears to have been carried out – but suggests that such ‘hotspots’ of high density are not representative of the wider countryside.
Extrapolation of more general levels of deer impact on biodiversity at a national level from results obtained within a study area of perhaps atypically high deer density may lead to somewhat unsafe conclusions about general impact levels.
The assertions about impacts on biodiversity detract from the main message of Dr Dolman’s study: in demonstration of source-sink movements at a landscape scale in response to management.
The British Deer Society is very supportive of active deer management, directed towards ensuring that deer numbers are maintained at densities that are in balance with their habitat and strongly supports a call that co-ordination of such management at a landscape level is to be encouraged.
The British Deer Society welcomes Dr Dolman’s references to deer in urban and peri urban environments, where there is a serious problem developing with growing deer populations in areas where practical management is very difficult.
