For many years the dominant deer in the Highlands in terms of numbers and distribution was the iconic red deer. The management of many estates were often geared to the stalking season for hinds and stags. Deer management groups were set up to cover almost all of the Highlands and there were many discussions on the numbers of deer to be culled each year, meeting set targets, and the worry of fluctuating prices of venison from the Game Merchants. I was secretary of one of the first of such groups at Gairloch in Wester Ross and the almost legendary Lea McNally was a member. We used to hold the meetings at Beinn Eighe at Kinlochewe. In various estates in the Highlands there were always the red grouse moors and the salmon and sea trout in the rivers but still for many areas it was the red deer stalking, often with paying guests, that was the financial mainstay.
In the last decade or so there has been a shift in emphasis as whilst the red deer stalking and management is still the main concern of many estates the change in the deer numbers and distribution have been quite dramatic. The most widespread of the deer is now the roe deer and nobody really know why. There has been one change in these small deer, compared with the red deer, and that is that more and more they are found away from woodland. They were always almost strictly woodland deer but now they can be seen on open moorland often some way from any cover such as woodland. Roe have also colonised some of the towns and villages, including Inverness, having managed to occupy such places as parks, burial grounds and even large gardens.
The success of the non native sika deer has also been quite dramatic as their numbers have risen sharply and the latest distribution map now shows they occupy as much ground as the red deer. This is another deer, like the roe, that was formerly woodland orientated but can now often be seen some distance from cover on the open hill. They originally came from introductions either because they were moved into deer parks or they were simply released into the countryside. To many estate owners they were as attractive as that other popular park deer, the fallow deer. Locally they were introduced, around 1900 to Aldourie just to the south west of Inverness. The other locality was Glenmazeran in Strathdearn south of Inverness. In the latter they were introduced for sport but for the first few winters it was touch and go as to whether they survived the harsh winters. Now, in contrast, if you draw a line between Fort Augustus across to Strathdearn and then to Inverness within that triangle there are reputed to be more sika deer than roe and red put together.
Sika are mid-way in size between roe and red and the photograph I took of a stag in Strathnairn, just on the side of the road, shows the diagnostic features. The white rump contracts with the dark coat that in the summer has a great deal of paler spotting but in the winter coat there are no patches on the flanks. The white spots behind the lower leg joints and white chin is also diagnostic. Sika have one strange habit in that sometimes they will just stand, even in the open, and just watch you as if they are just curious. The problems they cause in hybrising with red deer is now of major concern in the UK, let alone the Highlands.