The Cervidae family has been evolving since the early Miocene era about 20 million years ago, with the actual Cervus genus really becoming recognizable during the Pliocene era 12 million years ago. It should be noted that in this pre-Ice Age era, continents were still one land mass and this is probably why the genus has such a wide distribution. Red deer in what is now the United Kingdom survived the Ice Age and there was a large population in heavily wooded post-glacial Britain. As the human population expanded, so the need for food increased and Red deer became a favoured quarry. The success of the species since those days has been closely linked to the fortunes and favours of man. On the one hand man progressively removed the natural predators (bear, lynx, and wolf); but on the other, has hunted deer for food or for sport. It should be recognized that it is hunting that has ensured the survival of the species. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when food was scarce, it was royal protection of the aristocracy’s privilege to hunt for sport that ensured Red deer were not hunted to extinction. Whilst no one might applaud the social injustices of that era, at least Red deer remained indigenous.

Red deer are one of the most widely distributed deer in the world, stretching throughout the Eurasian temperate zones from New Zealand to northern Europe. Although the former is as a result of an artificial introduction, the remainder are mostly indigenous and are broken down into 12 subspecies. These differ in size, appearance and habits, with food availability and environment directly influencing their evolution.

The Red deer distributed across the UK are a subspecies distinct to this country, Cervus elaphus scoticus. The largest density of Red deer and that group most readily associated with British Red, resides in Scotland. However a significant number of Red are spread throughout other parts of the country, for example in the New Forest, on Exmoor, the Quantocks, Suffolk, and the Lake District. Many of these often isolated groups have at various times been supplemented by introduced stocks or escapees from deer parks. The most ‘pure’ of these groups is probably to be found in the Lake District. But even the largest of these groups outside of the Highlands, around Exmoor and the Quantocks (approximately 3,000 in 1995), cannot compare with the estimated 300,000 Red deer living wild in Scotland. These Scottish deer, although by nature woodland dwellers, have been forced to adapt to a moorland environment due to the demise of the great Caledonian forests and, as a result, they are smaller. This is partly due to the poorer quality nutrition available on the open moor, which is ironically referred to as ‘deer forest’.

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