A new paper published in the prestigious Animal Reproductive Science journal sheds light on the reproductive rate of wild sambar deer in Victoria.

This sort of research often struggles to attract funding in the current climate around deer because the question it seeks to answer is not sufficiently ‘alarmist’. It is, however, a very important question when you are seeking to inform practical, evidence based management on the ground.

This research was supported by financial contributions from The Australian Deer Association, the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (Vic) and the Victorian Hound Hunters. The hunting groups supported it because we have a huge stake in the evidence based management of wild deer in the Australian environment.

The study examined samples from 144 sambar killed by paid cullers, commercial meat harvesters and recreational hunters across land tenures in North Eastern Victoria.

The highlights of the paper are:

• Sambar age of first reproduction was 1.8 years and last reproduction was 12.75 years
• Most hinds calved between April and August
• Juvenile survival was estimated to be 0.81
• The current rate of increase (rs) of the Victorian sambar population was estimated as 0.14 inferring a 15 % per annum rate of change in population size based on age specific rates of fecundity and adult survival. This apparent 15 % per annum population increase occurs in Victoria when there is also a −15 % per annum annual increase in sambar harvest by hunters. In the absence of more precise data this infers there is a resilient population with there being an annual increase in sambar numbers that is greater than the numbers harvested by hunters of −90,000 animals (in the year of the study).
• Despite significant harvesting, the population is growing and dispersing northwards
• Sambar in South Eastern Australia have a more distinct breeding season than their cousins closer to the equator. Photoperiod is a key factor in this

The lessons here for management are clear.

“The possibility of medium-term expansion of the sambar population remains in Australia with this expansion in numbers being consistent with the eruptive paradigm when herbivores are introduced into a region. This scenario contrasts that of native populations where over exploitation and habitat destruction have reduced numbers such that since 2008 sambar have been listed as vulnerable with most endemic populations rapidly decreasing.

Abundance and distribution of deer are difficult to determine, however, efforts to monitor increasing population numbers of sambar in Australia should be maintained so that there can be predictions as to areas in which there should either be actions taken for targeted sambar population control or asset protection measures implemented. The combined recreational and commercial harvest rates of sambar are not limiting growth of the population and any landscape scale control needs to consider the size and trajectory of the current population. Alternatively, or inevitably sambar may become generally accepted in the Australian landscape as a naturalised species to be managed only through agricultural or ecological necessity."