17.10.2025 • In the Field

Passion for Nature

As hunters, we feel an innate sense of responsibility for our natural habitat. This deeply felt conviction drives Blaser’s dedication to engage in ways that take the deliberately chosen responsibility to preserve and protect nature and wildlife into account.

As key nature activists, hunters shape our cultural landscape. Their actions affect biodiversity and therefore our climate. To show the challenges we are facing, and the role hunters can play to overcome them, Blaser is supporting a film series by Fieldsports Channel and deer expert, Niall Rowantree, that is taking a closer look at sika deer and their habitat in Scotland.

Why dedicate four films to sika deer?

Because the situation we face in Scotland today combines many of the challenges we are facing all over the world: conservation, biodiversity, carbon sequestration and with it, climate change. Maybe even more important, it shows how intertwined those topics are and that there are, in fact, no right or wrong answers. However, each choice we make will have consequences for the whole habitat.

Why do sika deer pose a challenge from a conservationist point of view?

Because it is an alien species which has been, after they escaped the enclosures in the 1890s, so successful that they are threatening the native red deers in the competition for the best grazing grounds as well as by diluting the red deer gene pool by hybridization. Therefore, they pose a real threat to biodiversity as well as for reforestation efforts.

But in evolutionary terms, they are more successful?

Absolutely. But does it mean that we should simply leave them in place? Not from my point of view. The landscape in Scotland today has been heavily influenced by man and also shaped by its wildlife through grazing habits over the last centuries. And since sika deer grazes differently, they will automatically produce a very different landscape. If you want to go back to a more balanced ecosystem, or a more native environment as some people call it, it might be safer to rely on the familiar instead of betting on a new player, whether it is an animal or a plant. And that is where hunters enter the picture. Successful conservation is born out of good deer management.

But what exactly is the native environment?

That is the question. Do we really think it makes sense to reforest vast parts of Scotland? Keep in mind that if you opt for one kind of habitat you are trading the welfare of another habitat. Instead, a mosaic of habitats could be the better solution whenever possible as ecosystems have their greatest biodiversity where they meet. That also means leaving a certain number of deer in the habitat. Sure, that requires management, but it is where the hunters come in. Ideally, we manage deer numbers in such a way that the different deer species can fulfill their role in the habitat, e.g. by maintaining a certain forest structure by their different grazing behavior.

So reforestation plays an important role in the carbon sequestration?

Of course, forests do store GHG and are important. However, with the peat bogs Scotland has a much more important habitat for carbon sequestration. They have been built up over thousands of years, forests rarely exceed 100 years. The Scottish peat bogs store more GHG than all the boreal forests on the European mainland. And the native red deer play a vital role in the maintenance of those peat bogs. Grazing keeps the plants such as heather healthy, thereby ensuring the functioning of a peat bog in the long run. We should keep that in mind, when discussing red deer numbers.

Why are hunters often criticized when they play such a vital part in restoring the balance of an ecosystem?

It shows a deep lack of understanding of who we are. We are living in a cultural landscape which is the result of individual or political decisions over the last centuries. If we want to reshape it to have a more viable future, hunters are predestinated to be part of that process. We have a pole position in that we are out in nature regularly and see changes firsthand. We must continue to communicate these changes, engage more people in our efforts and convince them that by having a balanced habitat which takes into account all wildlife, we are not only doing good for the climate but are also choosing the best way to produce low carbon, protein-rich, sustainable food.