The deep roaring of the red deer stags in the rut in the Autumn is one of the iconic attractions of the Highlands. What tends to be forgotten is that whilst the rut of the other native deer, the roe, is in the summer what of the sika deer? The fact that the non native sika deer readily hybridises with the native red deer indicates that their rut must be at the same time of the year. However, what is intriguing is that whilst the red deer rut may only last for a several weeks that of the sika deer is much more protracted. Stags may be heard calling from the end of August to the middle of December. Sika stags do not roar like red deer stags but instead they have a very penetrating whistle that can carry up to a kilometre away. This, whilst compared with the roar of the red deer stags, seems to make no difference to the red deer hinds, hence the hybridisation.
Originally the only sika deer in the Highlands were confined to the Deer Parks such as the famous one at the Rosehall Estate near Lairg in Sutherland. In 1923 this park of 2,000 acres had no less than 150 red, 200 fallow, 40 roe and 50 sika deer. What was unusual were the roe deer as this species was very rarely kept in deer parks. For one thing they are the most dangerous of the deer with their short, sharp antlers. The other consideration, very important, was that they were very difficult to contain. It was said, and still thought, that no fence had been designed that would keep roe deer out or in. There are various rumours as to what happened in this park with one being that many of the deer simply escaped whilst another suggestion was that they were deliberately released. Either way the spread of the sika was one of the most important factors of deer in the Highlands for many years, including today.
The sika stags spread over the countryside and where they met red deer hinds in the Autumn they found some that the red deer stags were not holding and mated. In the late 1960s pure sika were seen near Lochinver and I remember culling, along the coast there, one of the first stags. In retrospect none of us had any idea of the seriousness of the hybridisation between the red deer and the sika. It is one if the biggest controversial wildlife issues of today but one that you hear very little about these days, for some reason.
Apart from the Rosehall Estate other estates were involved in sika deer being introduced, mainly for sport. Sika were introduced in several places such as at Berriedale in the north, Garve further south and at Aldourie alongside Loch Ness just south west of Inverness. They were also introduced into Strathdearn, south of Inverness, where they took a while to survive the cold winter’s but they are still there, in some numbers.
The problem is the question of hybridisation as this is now so widespread it is out of control. To start with the first generation offspring often had characteristics of both red and sika deer but then came the big issue. Now there are deer that look like red but have sika genes in them and vice versa. Many years ago some people argued that soon there would no pure native red deer left in the Highlands mainland and this is now probably true. This is as serious as it gets so who is doing anything about this issue now?
Tags: highland wildlife