THE BDS EAST ANGLIA BRANCH

Stalkers Evening

The now annual Stalkers Evening at Whelnetham Community Centre just outside Bury St Edmunds Stalkers Evening was held on October 30, organised by the BDS along with the  Deer Initiative, National Gamekeepers Organisation, BASC and St Hubert’s Club, who were all in attendance. Our very own branch chairman, Nick Rout, was master of ceremonies. This is an excellent evening for the exchange of technical and stalking product knowledge from a range of guest speakers and the conviviality of like-minded company from the other shooting organisations as well as this society

Valantina Zini from the University of East Anglia gave insight into some of the findings from her PhD Landscape deer management project, in particular, the relationship between the environment, muntjac populations, and roe deer fecundity.

Next up was Tim Weston from the NGO on the subject of Wild game meat regulations – what you can legally do with your culled deer. Tim’s informative presentation demystified the food regulation compliance for various levels of supply from the trained hunter supplying his family to stalkers processing and supplying venison. 

Last was BDS Chairman Professor Rory Putman who led the audience through the studies that had been conducted to answer the question “over what spatial scale does management effort need to be coordinated to deliver effective reductions in deer impact in woodlands?” Without slides, Rory illustrated how the protocol followed led to the answer that an area of 80km diameter was necessary to reduce the impact of fallow deer.