Hi, I am not a historian but I am the author of The Beginner's Guide to Hunting Deer for Food, and I wrote for Smithsonian Magazine for several years and have done quite a lot of work regarding deer and invasive species. I know a lot about this subject and will attempt to contribute, subject to the mods.

There are several species of deer that are at issue in Britain, chiefly red deer and fallow deer. Red deer have probably been on the island for hundreds of thousands of years, but fallow deer seem to be a relatively recent introduction during Roman rule.

There was never a 'natural' ecological balance of fallow deer in Britain. Most of the non-human predators that would eat them disappeared about 12,000 years ago.

During the middle ages deer (fallow and red) were managed as the rightful property of royalty. The King had the right to hunt them and he could delegate that right to his regional lords. People did not legally eat a lot of venison. There was some amount of of poaching that took place. There were commons, which were land on which commoners could gather fallen firewood and catch fish and snare rabbits, but taking deer on the commons was still usually prohibited. It is difficult to say how often deer were poached against the rules, since it was a crime and those who engaged in the practice were largely an illiterate class unlikely to leave a record of their crimes.

Hunting was a hobby of the landed nobility during the middle ages and deer were maintained for that purpose.

During the Middle Ages, deer populations were much lower than they are today. If compliant with the sub rules, I can summarise the history of man and red deer in Britain from the Bronze era to modernity:

The earliest evidence of red deer in Britain are dated from the Late Pleistocene. At this time, deer would have inhabited a very different environment than that of today, as over half of Scotland was covered in large swathes of birch, willow, alder and Scots pine. Large tracts of open grasslands and heathlands similar to those of the Highlands would still have existed, and it is likely that deer would have performed both grazing and browsing feeding patterns. Indeed, whilst most contemporary British red deer populations are principal grazers, anatomical evidence suggests that red deer are adapted for a diet of mixed browse and graze. However, the quality of available forage in Britain at this time was poor, and this is generally assumed to be linked to the small body and antler size of British deer found in comparison to contemporary European forms.

Huge changes in land-use and subsequently the environment were first brought about by the arrival of Bronze Age peoples in eastern Scotland (c. 2500 BC) , who brought with them advanced agricultural practices, and cleared substantial deciduous woodland in favour of tillage and grazing land for livestock. Human impacts upon the British landscape became progressively more ambitious from the Iron Age onwards: not only was more land required for a growing population, but timber was under increasing demand for construction and smelting activities. Simultaneously, the climate was warming and becoming more humid, which promoted the encroachment of bog at the expense of woodland in the upland areas. As such, it is estimated that almost 33% of Scottish woodland was lost to changes in the climate and anthropogenic activity.

By the mid-15th Century, continued timber extraction and land conversion resulted in a landscape more modern in appearance, with little woodland existing outside of the Highlands area of Scotland. During this period British red deer populations crashed to critically low levels as a result of two popular forms of land use in the region: hunting grounds and sheep farming. Firstly, large tracts of land were reserved by nobility as private hunting grounds, and unlike more modern British hunting culture, hunting was also practiced by the common man. Hunting was conducted at a large scale, and records indicate that over 100 individuals were taken regularly. Secondly, sheep farming was the most profitable form of land use at this time, and was prevalent throughout the countryside. The lack of forest cover from continued deforestation forced deer into competition with sheep on pastures. Consequently, deer numbers reached critically low levels in the late-18th Century, restricted to 9 ‘deer forests’, tracts of open-mixed forest and hill land. Whilst hunting practises contributed to the population crash, the demand for the sport prompted landowners into action for fear of losing entire deer stocks, and sheep were removed from certain estates. By 1838, there were 45 deer forests in Scotland, and declines in the profitability of sheep farming made room for increased hunting revenue, and by the early 20th Century there was approximately 1,450,850 ha of deer forest. Recent genetic evidence shows that many of the deer stocks that were replenished came from Iberian and Gaulish populations.

Following World War II, deer poaching rose to address food shortages. To address this, strict legislation was enforced to address poaching, and uncertainties regarding the status of red deer in Scotland lead to the formation of Red Deer Commission, which provided a standardised framework to evaluate the status of deer. From this, the status of red deer populations has been surveyed multiple times throughout the second half of the 20th Century.

Populations continued to increase throughout Britain, despite a resurgence in sheep farming and the increasing enclosure of land for forestry practices. A combination of lack of natural predation, reduced culling and mild winters has contributed to the red deer population doubling in size over the previous 3 decades and as such, the carrying capacity of the remaining pine forest has been exceeded and is consequently over-grazed. For example, red deer number at approximately 260,000 in Scotland, ranging in density from 1 per ha to 120 per ha. Whilst Scots pine forest was a dominant habitat of Scotland in 4000 BC, covering an area of approximately 1.5 million ha, currently less than 1% of this original pine forest remains. What remains of the pine forest habitat in Scotland is valued by red deer, as it provides cover when grazing from harsh weather, particularly during the winter months. As such, incompatibilities between the huge numbers of free-ranging red deer and forestry practices in Britain are prevalent. The underlying problem stems from the need to maintain a balance in managing resource production whilst minimising the negative impacts on habitats and other land-use needs. Specifically, two important yet conflicting motivations for land-use in Britain are to minimize the damage to agricultural and forestry infrastructure, and to conserve red deer for hunting, meat production and more recently, tourism purposes. The latter is an increasingly valued source of revenue for Scotland, as traditional agricultural and fishing industries have declined over recent years.

Sources:

CLUTTON-BROCK, T. H., ALBON, S., GIBSON, R. & GUINNESS, F. E. 1979. The logical stag: adaptive aspects of fighting in red deer (Cervus elaphus L.). Animal Behaviour, 27**,** 211-225.

CLUTTON-BROCK, T. H., GUINNESS, F. E. & ALBON, S. D. 1982. Red deer: behavior and ecology of two sexes, University of Chicago Press.

COHEN, J. E. 2003. Human population: the next half century. science, 302**,** 1172-1175.

HOBBS, R. 2009. Woodland restoration in Scotland: Ecology, history, culture, economics, politics and change. Journal of Environmental Management, 90**,** 2857-2865.

HOLDREN, J. P. & EHRLICH, P. R. 1974. Human Population and the Global Environment: Population growth, rising per capita material consumption, and disruptive technologies have made civilization a global ecological force. American Scientist, 62**,** 282-292.

HUNTER, R. 1962. Hill sheep and their pasture: a study of sheep-grazing in south-east Scotland. The Journal of Ecology**,** 651-680.

LOWE, V. 1961. A discussion on the history, present status and future conservation of red deer (Cervus elaphus L.) in Scotland. Ecologie et conservation des herbivores sauvages dans les pays tempérés. 1er Partie. Hémisphère oriental.