stonedeerRed Deer Research on the Isle of Rum

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This is the website of the red deer research project on the Isle of Rum, Scotland. The project is run by researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with Scottish Natural Heritage. This page provides some very general background on the study, more information can be found on various aspects of the project by clicking on the links below.

Home Page     The Deer Year       History of Deer Research on Rum      Kilmory Research Project

Meet the Deer       Research Findings      Publication List      People


maprumThe Isle of Rum is a small island in the Inner Hebrides, to the south of the Isle of Skye. Red deer research has been conducted on the island since 1953, and since 1972 an individual-based study of deer has been conducted in the ‘North Block’ or Kilmory area in the North of Rum. Continuing collection of information on the red deer on Rum over a long period of time has allowed research into important topics, such as ageing, long-term population trends, and the inheritance of individual characteristics that can rarely be explored in detail in natural settings. The Kilmory red deer research project now represents one of the longest and most complete scientific studies of a population of vertebrates in the world, and has been the subject of over a hundred scientific papers and several books. The study has produced groundbreaking research in behavioural ecology, population ecology, and evolutionary biology and is widely cited in biological text books.
The Red Deer Research Project on Rum takes place with the permission of
Scottish Natural Heritage, which owns the whole of Rum, and is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.
This website is organised into the following sections:


The Deer Year: An introduction to red deer life cycle

History of red deer research on Rum: A brief history of red deer research on the island

The Kilmory Red Deer Project: How we study the red deer at Kilmory

Meet the deer: Red deer family trees and the Kilmory hall of fame

Research Findings: Key scientific findings from 35 years of research

Publication List

People: Researchers currently involved in the Kilmory red deer project



Also: Click here to view the Isle of Rum website

Photographs used on this website were taken by Alison Donald, Sean Morris, and Josephine Pemberton.

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