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Impacting the Environment.

12/9/2018

2 Comments

 
Deer are not native to Australia. They have only been here since about the 1860s. Along with the likes of rabbits, foxes, sparrows, blackbirds and many other species, they were originally introduced into the environment by homesick English settlers, both for sentimental reasons and hunting enjoyment. In the 1970s and ‘80s, deer farming became popular as a new way to generate farm income. As with many boom industries, the bust soon followed and many farmers simply opened their gates and let the deer out.
It seemed for a while that deer were quite benevolent in our landscape: cute little bambis standing by the road verge, quietly nibbling away on the grass with no adverse effects, effortlessly leaping over the fence as we drove by.
Unfortunately, it was not to remain so. We are not yet sure why, but things have suddenly changed over the last two decades. Roadside sightings are no longer rare nor special and we have now had our first deer related fatalities on the nation’s roads. Farmers now find themselves competing with deer on a daily basis. And the Australian environment, especially in the creek valleys, is being trashed.
Deer are known as “ecosystem engineers”. These are organisms that create, significantly modify, maintain or destroy a habitat. Ecosystem engineers can have a large impact on the species richness and landscape-level heterogeneity, especially when such an organism arrives in a new area. This is happening in the Cardinia valley right now, to such an extent that both Melbourne Water and Parks Vic have both started to take serious action to limit deer numbers to preserve the natural environment.
Deer damage the environment in a number of ways. Being browsers, they eat a lot of our native shrubs, such as pomaderris and muttonwood, along with the emerging seedlings of the trees, reducing food sources and nesting sites for native wildlife. When the deer population reaches a certain size this prevents regrowth of the various forest species. They also rub their antlers on the trees, effectively ringbarking and killing them. Unlike kangaroos and wallabies, they are cloven hooved, which means they cause impaction of the ground wherever they walk, leaving hard trails through the bush. In the swampy areas they leave pug marks in the ground or worse, create mud wallows, damage the creek banks, increasing siltation and water turbidity, affecting the fresh water crayfish and the platypus that live on them.
Feral deer have been described as “the most serious invasive problem” in NSW and the ACT. The situation is arguably worse in Victoria. Our environment, still struggling to cope with the impact of feral cats and foxes, and feeling the early effects of global warming, can not afford another threat to its existence.
2 Comments
Jarrad
4/8/2021 11:25:24 am

It's hardly surprising that feral animal numbers have exploded in the last few years with the increased difficultly and wait time to obtain a firearms licence, this accompanied by the change in culture to a more "green" approach to animal control and bleeding hearts has turned the once noble hunter into a frowned upon lifestyle. People think animals that live there entire lives captive to be slaughtered is a significantly less and cruel way than harvesting a wild and free animal.

National parks, state parks and reserves only do one thing for feral and pest animals, they protect them from predation and control by hunters, this along with the extreme difficulty in gaining permission to hunt on private land has left open a feral animal utopia.

Fuddy duddy contract shooters and organisations like Field and game that are not local to the area are not only wasteful with their harvests they're inefficient and don't understand the layout of the land or the local animal movements.

Parks and property owners should be more welcoming to public licenced hunters, this isnt the 80s and we're the most regulated gun owners world wide, it's a professional hobby and lifestyle for many people who spend thousands on equipment and training, and who do not want to lose their equipment or licencing by misconduct.

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Pauline Barclay
4/2/2022 10:18:30 am

We are seeing more and more Deer on our property. They seem to be taking over the area. Very happy to see that something is finally being done about these pests.

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  • ABOUT US
  • ABOUT DEER
  • BLOG
  • SCIENCE + SURVEYS
    • DEER SCAN APP
  • LAND OWNERS
  • HUNTERS
  • CONTACT / MEMBERSHIP
  • LINKS