Red Deer – 24th August 2009
An item in a local Highland newspaper last month was from that newspaper 100 years ago dated 6.8.1909. It stated that “The first stag’s head of the season, a beautiful 10 pointer, shot by Madame La Marquise de Gannay, Beaufort Castle, has been sent to Mr. John Macpherson, Taxidermist, Church Street, Inverness for preservation”. From the trophy point of view little has changed in the Highlands in the value of such “heads” although many other aspects of red deer and stalking have been transformed.
The record from 1909 does not bother to mention that this was a red deer stag, it is just presumed, but these days things are different. Roe deer bucks have their own following with many stalkers believing that this is the final accolade as a trophy. Medals are given for outstanding roe heads in the same way as red deer. Sika deer have yet to get such a following perhaps because they are considered an unwelcome, non native, intruder as they hybridise with red deer. This hybridisation may well threaten the purity of red deer throughout mainland Scotland let alone Britain as a whole.
Red deer stags, especially those with well formed antlers, attract sportsmen from the continent and from all parts of the world despite what can be harsh terrain and poor weather. At present the red deer stag close “season”, when they cannot be culled, is October 1st to June 30th. At the end of June some stags are still in “velvet”, that soft hair covering the growing antlers. Unless stags are taken out purely for the herd management the stags are left until the antlers harden off. To put the antlers, as a trophy, into context a telephone call to a current taxidermist specialising in mounting mammals was revealing. A red deer shoulder mount , the neck is no longer in fashion, can cost between £500 and £700. This is on top of what the stalker has to pay for the stalk. Deer stalking is still big business and there is the spin off of accommodation and other considerations.
Interestingly, the stag shot as a ten pointer could, in those days, have been called a “royal” although the current fashion means that a royal has twelve points but they must be in the right formation. There should be three matched forward points on both antlers. Then at the top the twelve points are made up of three points at the top on each antler. Technically, and to the purist, these three points must be so shaped that they are large enough and deep enough to hold a glass of wine, or should it be whisky?
These aspects of stalking may not have changed but others have. Perhaps to the stalker that has the hard work of managing and culling deer out-with the guest periods there has been one fundamental change. The eye or canine teeth, sometimes called the tusks or tush, of the red deer stags were once in great demand. They were made into such items as brooches, tie tacks, necklaces etc. and, for a good pair, at one time several pounds were paid for them. People, including established firms and tinkers, would visit estates to pay out for them and Germany was the favourite market. It was one of the perks of the stalker and when it ceased, because of New Zealand flooding the market with imports, many stalkers felt it financially. There are some of the older stalkers that still have jars full of tusks as they waited in vain for the market to change.