THE EFFECT OF POST-CAPTURE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY ON THE WELFARE AND PRODUCTIVITY OF WILD RED DEER (CERVUS-ELAPHUS) HINDS INTRODUCED TO FARMING SYSTEMS

Wild red deer (Cervus elaphus) hinds were subjected to one of five pos t-capture management strategies during the period from capture in late pregnancy in March, until weaning in September. The treatments were: remained enclosed at the capture site; relocated to a remote site; rel ocated to a conventional deer farm an improved pasture; relocated to a conventional deer farm and gazed with farmed hinds; housed prior to c alving on a conventional deer farm site. For a further year, all hinds were managed tinder conventional deer farm conditions. There was cons iderable evidence, based on mortality and behaviour, to suggest that i nitial housing of the hinds following capture compromised their welfar e. Deaths of hinds (seven out of 20) occurred in this group, associate d with bullying during the housed period. Hinds on this treatment also showed a higher frequency of aggressive interactions compared with th e groups directly moved to the deer farm (11% v. 2% respectively of sc ans conducted at 10-min intervals over 6 h; P < 0.001) and a reduced l evel of lying behaviour (15% v. 34 to 47% of scans; P < 0.001) during the gestation period. Similarly, during the calving period, this group lay the least (27% v. 43 to 72% of scans; P < 0.001) and the mean num ber of interactions between hinds reached 11.7 compared with 1.5 to 4. 9 (P < 0.001) in the other groups over a continuous 6-h recording peri od. The two groups of hinds relocated directly onto sown swards were g enerally similar to one another in terms of behaviour and performance. However, the group mixed with farmed hinds suffered from considerable calf losses in year 1 due to disease (four out of 12). Losses of hind s over winter in year 1 (nine out of 90) occurred principally amongst those animals which had not become habituated to human presence or sup plementary feeding in the summer, i.e. groups remaining enclosed at th e capture site or relocated to a remote site. When all hinds were trea ted similarly in year 2 the hinds from these same two groups, together with those initially housed indoors, showed more hind-hind interactio ns overall than the two groups located directly onto the deer farm (7. 2 v. 3.1 interactions per hind over it 4-h period; P < 0.01) and it is suggested that these hinds had not yet adapted to their Mew environme nt. An ACTH stimulation test conducted during year 2 supported the vie w that the two groups of hinds most recently introduced into the manag ed system were subject to a chronic stressor at the time of testing, s ince administration of ACTH did not elicit ct significant increase in plasma cortisol concentrations (mean values pre- and post-ACTH 188 and 217 nmol/l respectively). In contrast, the mean plasma cortisol conce ntrations of the two groups managed tinder extensive farm conditions f rom the outset, showed a significant rise (pre- and post-ACTH, 261 and 376 nmol/l respectively; P < 0.01). From this it is concluded that th eir adaptation to the farm environment had already occurred. The live- weight gains of the wild hinds' calves (229 g/day) on the improved pas tures in the Ist year of the study were below that for farmed hinds' c alves (282 g/day; P < 0.05), suggesting that they were not habituated to the management system. However, by the end of year 2 animal perform ance was comparable with that of farmed hinds and calf growth rates re ached 276 g/day. Thus while housing wild red deer immediately after ca pture is associated with poor welfare, analysis of behaviour, adrenal response and animal production over a longer period suggests that by t he end of the study few important differences remained between the gro ups.