Record 41,000 deer culled but thousands more roaming free

LICENSED hunters shot and killed a massive number of deer in the 2011-12 hunting season - an estimated 41,601 - suggesting that Victoria has an enormous feral deer population roaming around national parks, other reserves and private land.

A report by the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, obtained by Fairfax Media, found that the annual deer kill has increased in the past two years and is the largest number recorded with the present survey methods. About two-thirds of the deer were shot on public land.

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Record 41,000 deer culled


The deer population seems to have a foothold across most of the state, with deer shot in all regions of Victoria except the Mallee and north central region. Hunters say deer live in bushland as close to Melbourne as the Dandenongs and Yarra Ranges.

The greatest number of deer were taken from East Gippsland, with researchers estimating that between 10,000 and 15,000 were killed there. In each of the state's north-east, West Gippsland and Goulburn Broken regions (northern Victoria), an estimated 5000 to 10,000 were killed.

East Gippsland farmers said on Tuesday that deer numbers had surged in recent years, and that they regularly damaged farm fences, which could lead to wild dog attacks on livestock. They said deer had become so widespread they had been seen in the streets of towns such as Buchan and Omeo.

But Steve Garlick, Victorian president of the Australian Deer Association, said the report showed that ''deer hunters are actually out there doing a job for the government in terms of managing deer'' across Victoria.


Mr Garlick called for a comprehensive ''management strategy'' for deer, that would see greater use of hunters to control deer numbers in certain areas, under strict conditions. ''There are significant areas where there's limited access to hunting, [and] that is where the deer impact is occurring,'' he said.

''There's no doubt that deer numbers have increased. I moved to Victoria 18 years ago now and deer numbers have increased in those 18 years,'' he said. ''The large wildfires we've seen since 1997 have provided more food for deer … by changing the landscape.''

The total Victorian population could be between 200,000 and 350,000, he said. But Mr Garlick said other animals caused more damage, pointing the finger at foxes, wild dogs and wild horses. ''They [deer] are reasonably benign. Deer are pretty easy to manage, they have one calf a year. It doesn't take much to keep their population in check and mitigate their impacts,'' he said.

But East Gippsland farmers said deer were a significant nuisance. Orbost dairy and beef farmer Chris Nixon said: ''At my farm here in Orbost we have deer on it every night. And they wreck fences, they spook cattle and, depending on what type of deer they are, if they're fallow deer they will actually kill cattle.''

Mr Nixon attributed the recent death of a 400-kilogram heifer on his property to a group of fallow deer, which he said chased and killed the animal. ''They're a complete pain as far as I'm concerned,'' he said.

Omeo sheep and cattle farmer Russell Foster said that ''once a month at least'' deer damaged electric fences, busting wires, insulators and de-electrifying them. ''It happens all the time,'' he said, including last week, when a damaged fence ensured that ''dogs came in and killed two sheep''.

Mr Foster said deer numbers had grown substantially in recent years. ''Twenty years ago you'd walk into the pub and say you saw a deer and everyone would look at you [doubtfully] and say, 'yeah, sure you did'. They were very elusive. Now you can just bloody walk out into the paddock and see them,'' he said.

Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh, who is responsible for regulating game hunting, said: ''Victoria has sensible measures in place to ensure that where there is an overabundance of deer and they are impacting on agricultural production or our natural environment, numbers can be controlled through targeted culling''.

The game surveys, funded by the Department of Primary Industries via Game Victoria, gather information about the numbers and methods of deer killed, peak shooting periods and locations of hunting activity.