Hunters will be paid by the Scotland’s nature agency to kill extra deer in a bid to tackle problems in the countryside.

Qualified and eligible deer stalkers in two parts of Scotland are being offered financial incentives for killing more deer than they are already.

Deer have proliferated in numbers and range over the last 50 years, partly as humans wiped out their natural predators, lynx and wolves, and partly because more are surviving winters made milder by climate change.

But too many deer spells bad news for Scotland’s woodlands and wildlife, as they munch on saplings from tree-planting projects and habitats for other animals.

Expanding depleted woodlands is “vital” to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss, but “it is simply not possible to do this in the presence of high densities of deer”, NatureScot said.

It believes the existing national cull needs to rise 25% or 50,000 deer per year over several years in order to hit targets to stop biodiversity loss by 2030 and restore nature across Scotland by 2045.

Agriculture minister Jim Fairlie said: “We know that Scotland is facing a nature loss crisis. Unsustainable deer numbers are exacerbating the problem as large populations continue to damage our plant life.”

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As the majority of Scotland’s existing deer cull is carried out by private landowners and deer stalkers, the scheme is designed to incentivise and boost this hunting in two specific areas of the central belt and Highlands.

One pilot will target roe deer in an almost 1,000 km2 area to the north of Glasgow and west of Stirling.

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The other will tackle invasive sika deer in important native woodlands and commercial forestry across a 527 km2 area on the southeastern side of Loch Ness in the Highlands.

Donald Fraser, NatureScot’s Head of Wildlife Management, said: “80% of deer management is carried out by the private sector at a net cost to deer managers.”

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The trial schemes will “give extra support to those working hard on the ground to tackle high deer numbers”, he said.

“This will help bring the number of deer in balance with the rest of nature so that our woodlands, forests, peatlands and other habitats can recover and thrive.”

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The schemes will also investigate how to increase the supply of venison meat. They will run from now until March 2025, with a view to repeating them the following two winters before their impact is assessed.

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