Island of Rona Red Deer Re-Introduction

The Deer Arrive

John Fletcher Reediehill Farm, Achtermuchty arrives with 8 deer for release on Rona.

Stretchering

George gets the stretcher ready for carrying deer.

Transporting Drugged Deer

Carefully carrying the deer to the trailer.

Keeping their Heads up

Keeping them upright in case of suffocation.

Waking the deer

Preparing the sedative antidote.

Instant reaction

The antidote creates an almost instant reaction when administered.

Feeding The Deer

At the start the deer were fed each day.

Hungry Deer

Very quickly the grass in the field was in short supply!

Wallowing

The deer found a cool bath at the bottom of the field.

Freedom

The gate was opened and one hour later the deer found it.

Release

The deer have spread out to many parts of the Island since this day.

The Master Stag

One of our two stags swam off to Raasay. It wont be back!

 

Rona Deer Report 15th October 2007. 

 

    Objective:

    1: To keep a population of Red Deer on Rona to increase the bio – diversity of the Island. 

    2: To keep open, areas of woodland that were becoming too dense.

    3: To help establish paths and routes around the Island. 

    4: To provide a sporting income and source of local meat to help the Islands economy.

 

 Land Impact:  The Island of Rona extends to 2000 acres.

The deer have integrated well, although not too quick to move away from people, they keep their distance especially the deer bred here. There are many wallows and rutting stands in the forest and on the open hill. Deer paths have become     established, many probably traditional sheep/man made paths of old. This enables easy access to areas which were in the past hard to walk to. With a little manual labour, strimming/cutting and posting these paths will become accessible to our visitors opening up the wilder areas of Rona.

 

Distribution: Mature stags favour the South end of the Island apart from the original stag. (See below). Young spikers and knobbers re

Breeding Status: In the first years when the re-introduced deer were less wild it was easy to assess breeding success, for two years 100% calving. No ratio of male/females was noted so 50% of each was taken. One semi tame hind (No 7) had twins two years ago but has had single calves since. This was probably due to the extra cattle feed she gets. She is a small hind and it was a surprise to see her with twins. I suspect they held back her growth. A wild stag was known to reside on Rona, only two years later was I able to confirm that there was also a wild hind. She has since been spotted with a calf, which could have been from another hind? Since the first two breeding years it has been difficult to assess the breeding success, we suspect it is still high. Numbers are as per the table.

 

main with their mothers until rutting starts. Hinds are well spread out with no large groups emerging yet. During the rut (2006) a group of 14 animals were held together by the resident stag at Dry Harbour for a few days, this included hinds calves and young male deer. No groups of this size were seen this year although the weather at the height of the rut was foul, which kept us off the hill. The only area which seems to have little deer presence is the North East side between ‘Braige and the forest at Dry Harbour, the Base have reported visits by odd deer but because it is heavily grazed by sheep there is nothing to hold them in this area.. The most popular area is the forest around Dry Harbour. The woods to the West of Big Harbour offer great shelter and there are a few hinds there although it is dense and difficult to count them (they travel between Dry and Big Harbour regularly). All in there are no areas subject to serious deer browsing. 

 

Population of Deer on Rona from 2003 on.   

 

Year   

Mature Stags

Breeding Hinds

Young

Stags

Spikers

Nobbers

Young Hinds

Calves

Total Animals

 

 

2003

 

2 introduced

1 resident

 

6 introduced

1 Resident

 

Nil

 

 

 

Nil

 

Nil

 

10

2004

3

7

 

 

 

6

16

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2005

3

7

 

3

3

7

23

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2006

3

7

 

5

7

6

28

 

 

 

 

1 culled

 

 

 

2007

2

1 Shot on Raasay

9

2

6

8

9

36

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2008 Estimate

4

12

3

8

9

9 Birth Rate declined

45

  

2007 Report: 

We arrived at these figures by spending more time this year than previous years looking for deer on the run up to the rut. From middle of August we started to see hinds and calves moving about more. Then late August stags appeared across from the Lodge on the other side of the Bay. Going out when practical we managed to account for 28 different deer. Due to the size of Rona and the ability of the deer to move about constantly we logged the deer and tried our best to look for characteristics that separated them. The weather this year improved as the rut progressed but quite a few days were impractical for watching/stalking deer, work commitments and odd foul wet/windy days. 

From previous years sightings we could see that the breeding success was 100% in the first two years and could see no reason why this would not be the same in year 3 and 4, due to increasing movement and numbers we can now only go by recognised breeding percentages. 

 In year 2005,  hind No 7 had twins.

The stags have taken up residence on the Island ‘Garbh Eilean’ in Kyle Rona. First spotted three years ago on the main island area in the summer, and then seen on the Island regularly. Last year a close watch was kept on the Island and during fishing trips and visits on foot, the two introduced stags were spotted, this year they were joined by younger stags, 5 animals were spotted and there was some debate that two may have been hinds.  

The resident stag first spotted in 2002 returns to the forest on the East Coast, North of Church Cave after the rut and is about this area until he breaks out again in September. This year he was seen many times but almost always without hinds, last year he was the dominant stag especially in the Dry Harbour area.  

We had a call from Raasay to report that a tagged stag was shot at Brochel Castle. I confirmed it was one of ours and had noted that this stag had been missing as no sightings were reported after July/August. 

He had a strong head and weighed 104 kilo (head, legs off). This was disappointing but not unexpected. I had expected that Raasay stags would come here (as did the original Rona stag?) but constant south winds from mid September would have only encouraged our deer over there. I understand no more shooting days are planned on Raasay so hopefully any Rona stags on Raasay may come home. Although a loss we would have had to cull this animal in 2008.  

A mature stag was spotted and filmed swimming from West to East across Big Harbour in the last week of the season. 

End.

 

Stalking on Rona

The population of Red Deer on the Island is managed under our long term plan for the sustainability and health of the herd, the conservation, environment and bio diversity of the Island.

As part of this initiative, stalking is available to let in August and September for stags and November to February for hinds.

the Stalking on Rona is very demanding, although a small island (2000 acres) the terrain is difficult and challenging. the highest hill is 125 metres! But the deer still retain the advantage.

Stalking is carried out on foot, although travelling out to the stalk and recovery of the beast may be by boat depending on wind & weather conditions.
 

Costs & Accommodation
 

Stalking Prices

Outing Fee: £100.00

Per Stag: £350.00

Per Hind: £100.00

One beast waives the outing fee for the day. Visitors can use the Estate rifle but may choose to bring their own rifle and ammunition.

The outing fee is payable on booking and is not refundable. Full terms and conditions can be emailed by request.
 

Accommodation and Ferry

Can be provided, as guests in the comfort of Rona Lodge and include bed and cooked breakfast,  packed lunch and a three course evening meal.

Price per person per night: £60.00

Self catering cottages are also available from £425.00 per cottage per week.

The return fare pp is £30.00 pp, using our regular charter ferry. Should a special trip be required the charter rate may apply.

Contact Bill Cowie for availability by email: ronalodge@tiscali.co.uk

Telephone:  078312939623