Research by DCS

DCS Research Policy and Priorities

Under Section 3(1b) of the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996, DCS has the power: “to conduct, or to collaborate with any person or organisation which is conducting – (i) any research, inquiry or investigation into questions of practical or scientific importance; or (ii) any experiment, trial or demonstration, relating to the conservation, control or sustainable management of wild deer or to any other aspect of the Commission’s functions.”
DCS directly funds biological, ecological and social research of an applied nature. Research needs are ranked in relation to their urgency and direct relevance to DCS targets in corporate and annual plans. Priorities are set by the Research Working group following consultation with Commissioners, technical staff and external liaison (e.g. through the Deer Management Round Table).

The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of DCS

Deer related research by DCS
	AREA	TOPIC	PROJECT	LINK	STATUS	CONTACT
		Management of roe deer in peri-urban Scotland			completed
	deer impacts	Determining the Risk of Pinewood Deterioration based on tree size (DBH) Structure and regeneration density data	RP68a		completed
		Scoping Study - Key Social and Economic Impacts Associated with Large-Scale Reductions in Red Deer Populations	RP74	[55KB]	completed 11/2008	fiona newcombe
		Developing methodologies for assessing diffuse deer damage: initial scoping	RP35a	[648KB]	completed 08/2004	katy mcneil
		Developing methodologies for assessing diffuse deer impacts	RP35b	[563KB]	completed 09/2008	katy mcneil
		Developing a policy framework for assessing diffuse impacts	RP35c	[177KB]	completed 10/2005	katy mcneil
		Deer impacts on blanket bog change	RP54		Ongoing	katy mcneil
	seasons	Reviewing data for close season consultation		[1.6MB]	completed 10/2004	katy mcneil
	deer movements and numbers	Review of calf tagging data		[1MB]	completed 2003	katy mcneil
		Developing and testing methodologies to monitor deer movement	RP 24	[1MB]	completed 06/2007	katy mcneil
		Variation and cost effectiveness of different count methods	RP27	The definitive version is available at Blackwells	completed 2006	katy mcneil
		Sika distance sampling	RP39	[117KB]	completed 03/2005	katy mcneil
	deer management	Deer Culling Methods - Full Report	RP58b	[481KB]	completed 12/2008	fiona newcombe
		supplementary feeding: Supplementary winter feeding of wild red deer Cervus elaphus in Europe and North America: justifications, feeding practice and effectiveness R. J. PUTMAN, B. W. STAINES. Published in Mammal Review 34(4): 285 – 306 by Blackwells (*)		[175KB]	completed 2004	katy mcneil
		Welfare of deer in relation to different culling techniques	RP58		ongoing	katy mcneil
		Reviewing, assessing and costing road traffic accident mitigation measures	RP23a	[640KB]	completed 03/2004	katy mcneil
		Scoping, designing, planning and costing a trial of mitigation measures	RP23b	RP23b [44KB]	completed 03/2004	katy mcneil
	disease	Red and sika parasites	RP7	RP7 [3MB]	completed 03/2004	katy mcneil
	best practice	Selection of animals for culling	RP41	[271KB]	completed 03/2005	katy mcneil
	best practice	Red deer jaw ageing	RP57		ongoing	katy mcneil

Future research

DCS is developing a broad strategy along with other partners in the Deer Research Co-ordination Committee to identify areas where they would encourage research complementary to existing work to help deliver other government objectives and strategies:

FUTURE research by DCS
Title	Project summary
Area Topics Socio economic / human behaviour	Economics of delivering public / private sector deer management Public attitudes to deer and deer control Non-market benefits of deer
Monitoring Impacts	Disease Numbers Biodiversity
Deer impacts	Non-native species (e.g. modelling the potential for muntjac spread)
Disease / disease transmission	Deer as vectors in human or farm animal health (e.g. foot and mouth disease, tuberculosis, TSE, ticks and tick-borne diseases) Deer diseases and parasites (e.g. warble fly)
Methods of deer control	Non lethal control Impacts of human access (e.g. in relation to deer movement)
Public safety	Mitigation measures for deer / road traffic accidents
Deer welfare	Range of issues (e.g. the effects of winter mortality; culling capacity)
Food	Venison production and marketing Venison consumption
Deer and other grazers	Separating impacts Impact of hill sheep reduction on deer movement and public safety, and deer ecology
Knowledge transfer	Mechanisms for disseminating research (e.g. decision support tools, BPG) Climate change Impact of climate change on calving rates, winter mortality etc

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Last modified at 05/02/2010 09:05 by System Account