Red deer populations in Scotland are at historic highs and require welfare-centred culling management to prevent starvation, overgrazing, and ecological damage.
Red deer welfare involves both individual and population-level considerations. Individual deer in overpopulated areas experience chronic nutritional stress, particularly hinds in late pregnancy and during the demanding period of calf rearing. Winter starvation can cause prolonged suffering before death. Poorly executed stalking causes wounding that leaves deer to die slowly from infection or injury. Welfare-centred deer management requires population control at levels the habitat can support, combined with highly skilled shooting to minimise wounding incidents.