Richmond Park begins culling male deer today

Richmond Park was beginning the first of two annual deer culls today.

Over the next few weeks park gamekeepers will shoot a quota of Red stags and Fallow bucks in a bid to keep the population numbers down.

"There are no real predators in the park, and because the deer can't leave the confines, their numbers increase quite quickly," said Theo Moore, a spokesman for the Royal Parks.

"To make sure there is enough food for them, we need to keep the population at around 650 animals.

"We actually lose about two per month to cars, but the population is still growing too quickly."

The cull will only take place at night when the park is closed to visitors, and marksmen will use high-powered rifles to shoot them "as painlessly as possible".

Richmond Park is one of the largest deer parks in the country. The trend over recent years has been to reduce the total herd from numbers that peaked in 1985 at just under 1,000.