Best Practice in Deer Management: What It Is and Why It Matters

The term "best practice" gets used in all industries and walks of life. The shooting industry in particular is fond of deeming certain activities best practice or otherwise.

When it comes to the world of deer management, we are very fortunate in that our best practice is well documented in a series of useful guides that can be found on the Deer Initiative website for England and Wales or the NatureScot site for Scotland, for anyone curious about the do's and don'ts of deer stalking. These guides cover a huge range of topics including legislation, welfare, species ecology, records, management plans, disease, meat hygiene, firearms safety and use, carcass handling and a whole lot more! They really are worth a read!

So what exactly is this mythical best practice? Is it just another meaningless set of rules designed to force us into a particular way of doing things?

Absolutely not! In short, best practice should detail the best way or options for doing any task. For deer stalking, this is most often guided by a few key themes with safety and animal welfare being somewhere near the top of the list.

I like to think that in the world of deer management, we have three levels to consider. At the top of the tree, we have the legislation. The laws that we should all be very familiar with and absolutely need to follow. Then we have best practice. This sits under legislation and represents the things we should be doing. Often there's no absolute requirement to follow it, but it should be at least considered in order to do the job to the highest possible standard.

And then we have the third level which is what actually goes on "on the ground". Good or bad, these are the actions that deer stalkers take when out and about in the woods and fields.

I know I mentioned the bad, but on the whole the deer stalking sector is a very good example of upholding high standards. Safety levels are good, with very few reported incidents, as are our welfare standards when it comes to humanely shooting deer.

Linking this to best practice, I would wager that most of us are following and sticking to a lot of best practice guidance without even knowing or thinking about it!

Silly things like wearing rubber gloves when gralloching, using a plastic handled knife or checking a thermal imager heat source with your binos before deciding to aim the rifle – all examples of best practice and all things that most of us do without a second thought.

For some of us, following best practice needs to be a more concerted effort. If any of you are operating under a licence or authorisation for deer, be it for night or out of season control (something becoming increasingly common as a tool for deer managers), compliance with the relevant best practice guidance is most likely a condition of the licence! So being able to demonstrate that you know and understand the relevant legislation and guidance will be essential in your application and implementation of the licence.

And as the methods, techniques and situations we use or encounter evolve, it's hugely important that best practice evolves with it – something currently happening across the UK. With things like thermal imagers, drones, highly accurate rifles and rests and digital riflescopes (a fairly recent addition to Scottish stalkers' toolkits), the advances in deer stalking are truly staggering to behold. Being able to use these methods and tech efficiently and safely is vital, so best practice needs to move with the times!

This is currently underway across the UK, with the Deer Initiative Partnership looking at England/Wales best practice and the NatureScot Wild Deer Best Practice Group covering the updates north of the border in Scotland. Both groups consist of individuals and organisations from a huge array of backgrounds and sectors. From shooting organisations like BASC, to welfare charities like the BDS, government bodies like NatureScot and Forestry England and other countryside organisations like the Woodland Trust. This diversity not only represents the deer sector coming together to work towards something, but also allows the viewpoints and opinions of the collective to be factored in – essential in these times when what we do is often under the microscope.

DMQ is a partner of the Deer Initiative Partnership and is heavily involved with the update of best practice guidance. This "finger on the pulse" lets us ensure our qualifications are as modern and relevant as possible, whilst also ensuring that anyone sitting one of our courses is being taught the highest standards in best practice.