November 2010

Belatedly - Emperor of Exmoor
Growing Old – Animals

Gruntled, that’s what I am, very gruntled that so many of you seem to remember me enough to look up my Blogs. I am told of this by Heather, who actually gets the stuff on-line and who keeps me writing. When I first came to France, I had given up. I was hacked off by papers and magazines closing down the columns that I wrote for them and, in some cases, had written for a long time, but there we are, nothing lasts forever and I had some good innings – so thank you all for hanging in there with me – a scribbler needs the encouragement of being read to continue writing.

I expect that many of you will have seen or heard reports of the killing of the “Emperor of Exmoor” – it may have upset some of you, but I suggest that you look at this from a practical point of view. The old boy was a magnificent stag, but he was (I understand) 12 years old – that means that he was ‘past mark of mouth’ and was definitely ready for culling. I say this because whilst I lived in Northumberland I did the deer management (all right: culling) on 12,000 acres of vertiginous forest. The deer on my patch were all Roe – perhaps the most kittle of British deer. I used to shoot 40/50 deer per annum. “But why?” people would ask me, did I shoot them, why can’t they just die naturally? That is a good point and worthy of thinking about. Without culling, the wild deer population would grow out of control. In parts of G.B it already has. “Ah!” people say, bless them, “but what harm do they do?” Deer are attracted to forest plantations; they can do tremendous damage to young plantations. Trees are a crop that has to be harvested. I am not a forester, but I have many forester friends who tell me that soft woods are a crop that is ready for a profitable harvest at 60 years. Should the young trees get damaged, their growth will be stunted. It will not be profitable to harvest. Deer damage trees, therefore deer must be controlled, but people say “can it not be left to Nature?” Yes, it can, but you should remember that Mother Nature is not a kindly old dame – she kills by disease, sickness and hunger, - she runs no Social Services. Some years ago I was stalking a steep and rocky piece of forest – out in the middle of nowhere, I had been out for 3 hours and seen nothing except a distant buck on a distant hillside. Too distant to be practical. “Breakfast” I thought. Heading back to the van, I crossed the top of a wide steep fire break. I glassed it and clocked on to a little roe standing clear in the middle of the fire break. This was the beginning of August, so the doe was out of season, but I thought I’d stalk up on her for practice, so I did. I was in plain view, but the doe did not move as I crept closer and closer. At last I spoke, “Look” I said, “I am going to raise my rifle and if you do not move I shall shoot you”. She had seen me, must have heard me and as I was up wind she must have winded me. I got the glass on her. She was in rotten condition for mid summer, her coast was ragged, her ribs stuck out, - I moved closer. I could see her watching me, but she made no move. Something was wrong. It was an easy 50 yard shot and she dropped where she stood. It was when I opened up the carcase that I found the problem. Her insides were rotten with ulcers. She must have been in terrible pain, which would eventually have brought about her natural death, but it would not have been a quick end. Not like with my bullet.