Media release – Guy Barnett, Minister for Primary Industries and Water, 28 August 2020
New management plan for Wild Fallow Deer
A deer management plan will be developed to ensure the Government can continue to balance the impacts of wild deer on agricultural production, conservation areas and forestry, while maintaining deer as a traditional recreational hunting resource.
The management plan will set the direction for the management of wild fallow deer for the next five years and be developed by the Government in consultation with the Tasmanian Game Council and other stakeholders.
It follows the completion of an aerial survey to estimate the number of deer in the traditional Tasmanian deer range, which was a response from the 2017 Legislative Council inquiry into wild fallow deer.
In addition to surveying deer, the aerial survey included Forester kangaroos given the kangaroo range is mostly contained within the deer range.
The survey estimated an abundance of about 54,000 wild fallow deer and about 30,000 Forester kangaroos in the area surveyed, which accounts for the majority of the range of both these species.
This is the first time estimates of the population and geographic distribution of both these species have been scientifically quantified, and this data will be important as a basis from which to monitor how these change over time.
Importantly, the survey confirms there is currently a sustainable population of both wild fallow deer and Forester kangaroo in Tasmania.
The management plan will identify any new actions required, as well as recognise the Government’s Contemporary Quality Deer Management (QDM) Statement released in 2019.
The survey methodology was developed using best practice methods in consultation with the Tasmanian Game Council. The methodology and results have also been independently reviewed and endorsed by two internationally recognised authorities in surveying wildlife populations.
The next step in the census of wild deer is to undertake the camera trapping and citizen science components, which will focus on areas with low deer abundance.
The report is available at www.dpipwe.tas.gov.au/deer-survey
Media release – Invasive Species Council, 28 August 2020
Three wasted years – still no action on Tasmanian deer crisis
After three wasted years the Tasmanian Government is no closer to addressing the unfolding environmental crisis caused by expanding fallow deer numbers, the Invasive Species Council warned after the release of new feral deer survey data today.
“We are disappointed that three years after a parliamentary inquiry found fallow deer have spread into sensitive conservation areas including the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area the Tasmanian Government is only now starting to develop a plan to tackle the problem,” Invasive Species Council CEO Andrew Cox said.
“The Tasmanian Government survey of the worst areas affected by feral deer estimates there are 53,000 deer in these areas alone, and the survey didn’t even cover the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
“These new feral deer numbers are shocking and much worse than we expected.”
The survey results suggest that earlier studies warning of increasing feral deer numbers in Tasmania underestimated the growth and spread of the total deer population.
“In 2016 it was estimated there were 25,000 feral deer in Tasmania and that numbers could increase by 40 per cent in just ten years and exceed one million by mid-century if there is no active management,” Mr Cox said.
“In just four years it looks like the estimated number of feral deer in Tasmania has more than doubled.
“Deer are increasingly threatening farms, conservation areas and pose a serious vehicle accident risk.
“In releasing the survey results, the Tasmanian Government proudly talks about striking a balance between managing deer for hunters and protecting Tasmanian farmers and the environment from the destructive impacts of deer, and yet its response has been entirely one-sided.
“The newly-formed Tasmanian Game Council is entrenching hunting interests and there has been no action to stop deer moving into the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
“All we have seen is new areas opened to hunting, an ineffective measure to control deer numbers and limit deer spread.
“Tasmania and Victoria are now the only states in Australia failing to treat deer as a pest species and are instead managing them as a ‘game’ animal, protecting feral deer as a resource for hunters and limiting control efforts.”
The Invasive Species Council is calling on the Tasmanian Government to put in place a deer management strategy that ensures:
- Deer are managed as a pest animal in line with the rest of Australia.
- Deer no longer receive special protection under the Tasmanian Wildlife Regulations.
- Surveys of deer encroachment on the TWWHA are completed.
- Deer containment lines are drawn at the edge of the TWWHA and other suitable boundaries and resources secured to ensure all deer beyond containment lines are eradicated.
- Deer are eradicated from Bruny Island within two years.
More information on feral deer in Tasmania.
Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens Leader and Primary Industries spokesperson, 28 August 2020
Barnett Fails Farmers and Environment, Backs in Feral Deer
Minister Barnett is failing farmers and the environment. In declaring the feral deer population as ‘sustainable’, he is allowing them to breed in huge numbers, damage fencing, crops and wilderness areas unchecked.
This destruction is official government policy.
The Minister’s survey only took into account the so-called ‘traditional range’ of fallow deer. While this is a misnomer in itself, as a feral species has no ‘traditional range’, the survey ignored two thirds of the state.
54,000 deer were found in the area surveyed. That survey didn’t include the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
When giving evidence under oath to the 2017 Legislative Council inquiry, DPIPWE officials estimated the feral deer population as likely closer to 100,000.
Fallow deer are not ‘wild deer’. They are feral animals, a pest species to farmers and in the natural environment that should be treated as such.
Instead, feral deer are protected under the Nature Conservation Act 2002 and more government resources are dedicated to sustaining a deer population for shooters than in threatened species protection.
In 2016, the TFGA estimated the annual cost of feral deer to farmers at $25 million. UTAS research warns, under current government policy, the deer population could reach one million by mid-century.
Feral deer are destroying farmland and infrastructure, as well as wilderness values in our protected areas. They are also a public safety risk on our roads. Farmers have long sought changes to the deer shooting season to enable them to better manage this pest species year round.
Mr Barnett must act to remove protections feral deer have under the same Tasmanian law that covers threatened and endangered species. Anything less is an insult to the primary producers he purports to represent.
