A wildlife photographer has slammed some of the new policies proposed by the Deer Working Group report on deer management.

Neil McIntyre, whose book Chasing the Deer, follows the red deer through the seasons, has criticised the removal of a close season for males, which would mean that they be shot at any time, and reducing the length of the female close season. “That’s reducing them to an even lower status than they are now,” he said. “And the impact of that would be, I think, quite catastrophic”

In an interview in the Herald’s Saturday magazine, he explained his concerns over the fact that deer were now being seen as little more than “a pest”. One of his reasons for writing the book, he said, was  “to try to get some respect back for them, because sadly over the last literally two decades their stature so to speak has been much maligned, reduced to nothing more than a pest in some people’s mind.” 

In recent decades, the deer has become a target in the firing line of the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss. Its numbers, various reports have said, must be controlled because of the ways in which deer browse on young trees and prevent reforestation. It's an issue that seems all the more potent in the wake of COP26, as we strive to hit national targets.

In 2020 a report was published by the Scottish Government’s independent Deer Working Group, which delivered a range of recommendations including phasing out the use of lead ammunition to cull deer, modernisation of existing deer legislation, the development of robust deer management plans and enhanced monitoring of deer numbers. 

Earlier this year, when Ben Macpherson, then Minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment, announced the policy proposals, he noted, “As the scale of tackling climate change and the biodiversity crisis increases, and the measures needed to address these challenges become ever more necessary, it is evident that a significant stepping-up of deer management efforts are required.”

McIntyre, who is from a deer stalking family, is also critical of the zero tolerance approach to deer adopted by some estates. “There are several rewilding estates  that have followed that strategy. It suits their agenda. They want full scale natural regeneration, and there’s no getting away from it, there has been over-grazing. They've adopted this policy and ultimately that’s how they’ve managed to get such prolific regeneration. It’s an ongoing process, and it’s not management. They dress it up, they’re very careful with their words. They’ll say things like we’re increasing deer cull numbers or we’ll increase the management, but what they actually mean is it’s zero tolerance.”