Roedeer at Terlet

[Holland&Holland]

Yesterday i went to Terlet, a airfield for gliders (planes without engines). We (our syndicate region) had a evening where we look for red deer and count them to make a shooting plan. We do that several times with all our big game species. Unfortunately we saw the red deer pretty late, it was to dark to get a picture of them. Saw also a lot of roedeer. They came out earlier. Enclose some pictures of the area and some roedeer to enjoy. :blink:

 

H&H

 

some more

[arnold]

so lucky and nice to get these pictures thankyou very nice

[Cranfield]

That looks to be a very nice piece of ground.

 

H&H, when you say a "shooting plan", do you agree the number and type of deer that will be shot through the season ?

[Holland&Holland]

@ Cranfield

The Netherlands is a small country with quality nature but also loads of people and houses etc.. So our wildlife has to be managed in a almost scientific sort of way.

 

Every year the government gives out a limited amount of licenses to shoot big game like red deer, wild boar, roe deer, fallow deer, moeflon etc.. They calculate these numbers by putting the actual counted numbers, the age range, the amount of food aspected (nuts form trees for instance), weather conditions (hard or soft winter etc..) in a computer model . They then can predict (more or less) the amount of animals you will have next year and if that will be a proper healthy group for the space and biotope available. Off course every year you will have a large number of newborn. They give you the numbers of animals to be shot which also states sex and age per region. It is important to cull following the licenses. The Netherlands is divided into different regions with their own "hunting club / syndicate". Every hunter with land to shoot over has to join such a syndicate, otherwise he gets no license to shoot big game. This way the hunting is heavily regulated. So it is very much selective hunting going for specific animals in specific regions. It makes sense though. But it is a lot of paperwork with al the counting of animals and applying for permits etc... We go out as a syndicate about 12 times a year to count the big game. All the smaller wildlife (like rabbits, crows, geese etc..) is counted once a year (14 april this year) in the whole country. So mayor operation.

I myself am the secretary of the syndicate which hunts in the southern part of our biggest nature reserve called the Veluwe. This position luckily means i get invitations to come and shoot/hunt. :blink: Makes all the hard work well worth it.

 

Long post, hopefully not too boring.

H&H

 

baring the above in mind you can understand i am a surprised that in the UK there are no limits to the amount of roe you can shoot (for instance) on youre land.

[naddan28]

How do you accurately count crows and rabbits??? surely you cant tell crow a from crow b and also with rabbits there are always some in warrens etc.

[Highlander]

We don't have any specific rules/laws about game 'management' in the UK but I think we should have at least for the larger quarry species such as deer. I know some people do have properly constructed management plans but many don't and it's all too easy to just keep shooting without any real idea about sustainable numbers. Bye the bye that might also apply to pigeon shooting one day we could wake up and find them all gone!

 

On one of my estates there's a deer stalker who only ever shoots the 'trophy' fallow bucks so consequently there's a large population of does that do a lot of damage and breed like crazy. It might not be too long before the landowner's looking elsewhere for a stalker with a management plan!

 

It might not be practical to run such a comprehensive scheme as you have in Holland but I like the computer model idea for deer.

[Holland&Holland]

Of course it is not just computers but also common sense about the outcome. Luckily some specialised people are busy with this. (and some nutters at our ministry of agriculture)

 

And you are right, how do you count animals like crow and rabbits for instance??

But that is the work of the "anti's" and left wing government. They acheived by law that we have to have a management plan before we go out and hunt / shoot for all wildlife. This as a result means we count wildlife. For big game i find it makes sense, also for species like hares. For most others it is difficult to get a good reading of the actual numbers and is a bit silly i agree.

[Highlander]

As an addendum to this for anyone who's interested there's a company in the UK supplying software for deer management. www.csvenator.com. I should say I've no idea about the products and have just seen the write up they have in Sporting Gun.