INCREASED red deer in culling by Scottish Natural Heritage is currently taking place in the Cairngorms National Park – prompting the quango to source a refrigerated trailer to get the shot animals off the hill.

Ross Pushman, managing director of Coldtraila, which has supplied a brand new carcass hanging trailer to store and transport red deer during the ongoing cull, said: “SNH has the hugely important and challenging job of keeping the largely wilderness landscape of the highlands in pristine condition. Ultimately, this means controlling the wildlife populations that reside there.

“Currently, red deer numbers are too high to allow the fragile ecosystems in their habitats to recover from grazing and disease spreading, especially in the Cairngorms," said Mr Pushman.

“We were called in to help control the issue by supplying a special game trailer based on a 4.8m long German-made Unsinn, which is fitted with two hanging rails incorporating roof mounted electric winches for lifting carcases from the ground. This way, the deer are safely and humanely removed from the areas of concern.”

Coldtraila exhibited the new trailer, which can take up to 15 red deer at a time, at LAMMA 2019, the UK's leading farm machinery, equipment and services show, earlier this month.