NatureScot Deer Data

Updated 22 January 2025

Background:

Under the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996 (as amended), owners/ occupiers can request to shoot deer at times when it is otherwise illegal to do so. The General Authorisation is available to all owners/ occupiers without the need to apply for it. Cull return information is provided through the Annual Cull Return request.

There are other authorisations that owner/ occupiers need to specifically request. The two most common ones are a 5(6) out of season for preventing damage to unenclosed woodland/ natural heritage or for public safety reasons, or an 18(2) night shooting for preventing damage to agricultural land/ woodland or for public safety reasons. A third authorisation, the 5(6) Female, is granted for the culling of female deer over a year old between the periods 1 April to 31 August to prevent damage to agricultural land or enclosed woodland.

A condition of an authorisation is for applicants to report the cull of all deer taken under that authorisation.

It should be noted that the number of authorisations has fluctuated due to how authorisations have both been applied for and issued. i.e. one authorisation may cover multiple properties/ control areas. Additionally, there was also a revision of the definition of ‘enclosed woodland’ during the 2011-2012 which resulted in an increase in specific 5(6) authorisations.

All information is provided for the yearly period 1 April to 31 March.

Cull data for the 2023 – 2024 season is still being gathered.

Further information on authorisations can be found at Wild Deer Best Practice Guide Authorisations and Wild Deer Best Practice Guidance Night Shooting

The following tables are available in the attached excel spreadsheet at the foot of the page. 

*A new electronic system was implemented in 2024. Figures updated from 2020 onwards have been derived from this new reporting system. 

Total reported culls (by species) under Authorisations by yearly period

Updated 22 January 2025

Background:

Under Section 40 of the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996 (as amended) NatureScot (formerly Scottish Natural Heritage) can request information on the numbers of deer shot by landowners and occupiers. Any individual that is requested to submit an Annual Cull Return must do so. Culls are requested for the period 1st April to 31st March.

Not all landowners/ occupiers will be requested to report an annual cull as not all landholding details are held in the ‘Deer Online Services’ database. It is worth noting that in April 2018 around 4000 properties were registered on the database.

As part of the Annual Cull Return process NatureScot has used the opportunity to gather information on various other elements of wildlife management. As of 2009/’10, NatureScot has requested numbers of observed carcasses through natural mortality.

Further information on Annual Cull Returns can be found at Wild Deer Best Practice Guide Statutory Records.

The following information is provided in the tables below. All tables are available in the attached excel spreadsheet at the foot of the page.

Table 5 – Reported Annual Cull Returns for the period 1996-1997 season to present. A season is the year period from 1st April to 31st March. An overall summary of reported mortality is also provided. *

Table 6 – Percentage of reported annual deer cull taken out of season. This is broken down by species. *

Table 7 – Further breakdown of the reported Mortality information by species and sex. *

*Please note that data for 2024/’25 is still being gathered and will continue to be amended.

NatureScot Red Deer Count Information 

Background:

NatureScot, and previously Scottish Natural Heritage, the Red Deer Commission and Deer Commission for Scotland, carry out open range red deer counts over Deer Management Group (DMG) areas or in some cases smaller focus areas (i.e. Section 7 areas). Along with carrying out the NatureScot deer count program, NatureScot staff assist individual estates/ DMGs to carry out and complete their deer counts.

Currently, the majority of NatureScot open range red deer counts are undertaken with the aid of a helicopter. This enables large areas of land to be surveyed and deer located and counted, either directly or via photographs of the group. Generally, most counts are carried out in the winter/ spring, with a few counts carried out in the summer. For further information on open range deer counting see Wild Deer Best Practice Guide Open Range Counting.

*2019/’20 count plans were restricted due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

The following tables are available in the attached excel spreadsheet at the foot of the page.