UK other species review 2016

There is often debate among the UK hunting fraternity about the status of introduced species and the application of the CIC formulae to them. This comes from the concern as to whether introduced ungulates are truly wild in nature or because of the way man has manipulated their existence, they are more “feral” than “wild”.

It perhaps helps to understand the situation in other countries because we in the UK so often think that these issues are ours alone. The fact is that such concerns are widespread and as an international organisation the CIC is well aware of these issues and their effect within hunting communities across the world.

Within greater Europe, the Czech Republic is the state in which the highest number of hunted species exist. The 10 species include only four that are native — red and roe deer, moose and boar — and another six that have either been introduced or have escaped from captivity: fallow, white-tailed and sika deer, chamois, Barbary sheep and mouflon. In the majority of cases, man’s intervention in their existence is limited mostly to providing some sort of feed during winter. It is a system not dissimilar to that used by livestock farmers.

Should we worry too much about the origin of the species present in our country? Humans are almost incapable of not interfering with wild animals so we have to work around such interventions. The fact that park deer get out and breed with wild animals happens all over the world, as proven in so many projects where DNA comparisons are made. But at least such breeding can be considered “natural” rather than man-made.

Deliberate manipulation

We should strive for an animal to lead an existence that is as “wild” as possible. What happens naturally is one thing, deliberate manipulation is another.

Having reviewed roe separately, had all six other “wild” species forward for assessment. We included for the first time a few heads shot in the UK but measured in other countries. This is a result of hunters taking their heads to their home countries before the required drying-out period has been achieved. This number will increase in the future as other countries come online with the International Evaluation Database.

RED

Though down one head on those measured last year, all four Scottish red deer heads made medals, though all at the bronze level. Of interest were the weights of the heads with a high of 9.64kg and 14 points for Mr Gibb’s Dumbartonshire stag and more than 8kg for both D. Bain’s Islay head and Mrs Yool’s Inverness-shire medal head, both 12-pointers.

English heads presented for evaluation were up again this time with 16 medal heads, including the first gold medal since the re-classification of UK red deer as part of the European sub-species (Cervus elaphus hippelaphus). This was Stephen Underhill’s Cornish stag assessed at 210.37 CIC points, a fine 14-pointer weighing in at 8.91kg. It was one of two from Cornwall, the other being Nigel Fulton’s bronze- medal 12-point stag. Another five heads took silver, ranging from 192 to 200 CIC points, with a further 11 assessed as bronze. These red trophies came from Suffolk (five), Devon (five), Norfolk and Cornwall (two each) and one each from North Yorkshire and Somerset.

In February 2016 I was invited to Budapest to form part of an international team to measure some potential record heads. There are many more red trophies in Hungary, but the single biggest difference from those that we see in the UK was the size of the main beams. One 252.3-point head produced had lower beams of 22cm and larger circumferences are not uncommon. Compare this with what we see on a regular basis here with a maximum of 16cm (V. van der Valk, 200.28 points) and we begin to understand the difficulties in finding gold-medal  heads. It may also be that we are shooting stags too young; good heads in Hungary are often 12 years old or more.