Managing the Deer in Thetford Forest

When it was put to me that a talk at Wymondham F.M.Club on deer management had been very interesting and that we should include it in our programme at Aylsham I thought, ok, but could not quite imagine the subject being as interesting as it turned out. I am sure that everyone of the 24 members attending were very pleasantly surprised and learnt a great deal about the deer that are today quite commonplace in our countryside.

I approached Dudley Gunn, who is a wildlife ranger within Forestry England, based in Thetford Forest who agreed to visit us in January 2024. The meeting room at Youngs Park was festooned with antlers together with cut-outs of the main species to be found in Thetford – Red, Roe, Muntjac, Chinese Water Deer and Fallow.

In introducing himself and colleague Harvey, Dudley invited those present to ask questions and participate as he was not a natural speaker – we very soon discovered that this was not true for he demonstrated an amazing grasp of the deer species that are to be found in Thetford and the work that he and his colleagues undertake to control the numbers within the forest. One has to take on board that the main objective of Forestry England is the production of timber and without controlling numbers of deer this simply would not happen. In spite of the cull in 2023 amounting to some 5000 deer, the trend is still upwards in numbers posing further threat to timber production. All animals that are culled are prepared in 4 game larders for the final processing which takes place at Highland Game in Dundee. As well as the threat they pose to timber production, Dudley gave some alarming figures as to the number of road accidents resulting from deer suddenly launching across the highway.

While for many, venison is not an every day choice of meat, there is an increasing awareness of the health benefits of it compared with some other red meats. However, the volume now available to the food chain has reached a level beyond that which can be retailed by your high street butcher and therefore the supermarkets are today the main buyers with the result that just as many agricultural
sectors are having to face, the price received is being screwed to the floor. Such a shame that a quality product is subjected to the antics of the supermarkets.