Dr Calum Brown, lead author of the report, The Ungulate pretender: Why the non-native Sika deer may become the new Monarch of the Glen, said, “We are deeply concerned that by managing all deer populations in the same way, we might inadvertently help the invasive non-native Sika deer to outcompete our iconic native deer species, Red and Roe deer. While the problem of deer overpopulation in Scotland is widely recognised, we don’t want to see Sika crowned the new ‘Monarch of the Glen’.”
The authors, a team of ecologists, deer stalkers and foresters, have combined decades of field experience with scientific experiments across three sites in Scotland, demonstrating that Sika deer possess multiple natural advantages that make them harder to manage than Scotland’s native deer.
The research paper findings
The paper identifies six features of ‘super Sika’: They are more resilient to harsh winters, better at surviving on scarce resources, more vigilant of humans, better at breeding, more tolerant of disease and able to hybridise with Red deer.
Scotland’s deer population is thought to be at an all-time high of between 800,000 and one million animals, having doubled in just 35 years. This explosion in numbers poses a significant challenge for environmental restoration and woodland expansion, where over-browsing of young trees prevents them from establishing across large areas of Scotland’s landscapes.
Challenges of managing Sika deer population
Deer stalkers have long recognised the additional challenges of Sika deer management and have developed a healthy respect for this species. However, much of the national debate about deer has ignored them. The authors argue for greater recognition of the threats posed by Sika in order to support strategic control of Sika populations at the edges of their range and at key points within them. Support for deer managers will need to be increased to enable collaborative evidence gathering using new technologies such as drone-based censuses, information sharing and coordinated culls.
“Bold and urgent action is needed to address the risks of Sika dominance”, says Dr Calum Brown, “Sika deer hold many advantages over our native species. Increased deer management and culling which doesn’t account for Sika’s advantages is likely to reinforce these advantages. We could see Sika and hybrids becoming the dominant species in areas where they are present.”
For more information contact: Highlands Rewilding.
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