An island community has given around 1000 red deer a reprieve from culling following a public vote.

Concerns about Lyme disease, which can be passed to humans from ticks carried by the deer, along with complaints about damage to gardens, prompted a petition for complete eradication of the iconic species on community-owned South Uist.

However, ahead of the vote, the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA), urged residents to reject the move, saying that killing the deer would represent a ‘symbolic blow’ for the last remaining genetically pure red deer in Scotland.

The organisation asked residents to ‘be mindful’ of the wider impacts a cull would have on the nation’s biodiversity, as well as the species.

A total of 522 residents voted after hearing presentations from petitioners and Storas Uibhist, which oversees the community-owned estate, with 140 voting in favour of a cull and 379 voting against.

SGA chairman, Alex Hogg, said: “As the body representing SGA members and their families, who would have paid the price of deer eradication with their jobs, we are relieved for them at the outcome. We know it has been an incredibly worrying time for them.

“The gamekeeping team had carried out a record reduction cull this winter, in difficult and uncertain circumstances. They deserve credit for that.

"It was pleasing to hear Storas Uibhist also allude to the other work professional gamekeepers carry out, work which is of benefit to the wider community but is not always reflected solely in balance sheets.

“Skilled predator control, goose management and muirburn, for example, are public goods and it is positive these skills will be retained within the community.”

Previously, the SGA pointed out that South Uist represents one of the last named ‘refugia’ for genetically pure Scottish red deer, with zoologists recognising the long-term threat to the species posed by cross-breeding with Sika deer.

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The organisation added that scientists predicted there will be no genetically distinct red deer left on the Scottish mainland by 2050 and the importance of the remaining island refugia carried significant weight when viewed through a conservation lens.

In an academic paper published by Cardiff University, author Jacqui Mulville said: “The value of our remaining island deer should not be underestimated. They remain the purest genetic strands of red deer in Britain showing no evidence for hybridisation with Sika deer, unlike the mainland populations.”

Red deer previously disappeared from South Uist due to over-exploitation, but were reintroduced in the early 20th Century. In the 1970s, 19 red deer, which had been tested for genetic purity, were brought to the island to bolster the herd, mainly from Rum with one stag from a wildlife park in Kingussie.

Stalkers on the community-owned Storas Uibhist estate are presently undertaking the biggest cull on the island since the 2006 community buy-out, with 329 animals taken as of March 16.