Clearance of deer cull carcasses is loss to ecosystem The removal of deer bodies following annual culls in Scotland may be depriving the environment of essential nutrients, according to a new study. Environmental benefitsIn Scotland, deer populations have been actively managed since 1959, primarily to control over-browsing – eating shoots and leaves of trees and shrubs. "The results of our study call for deer managers to reconsider current practices and integrate approaches that retain a proportion of deer carcasses within ecosystems. Possible solutionsThe researchers propose two solutions for retaining nutrients from deer carcasses in the environment. The first is for culled deer carcasses to be left where they fall.