Anti-hunting ideologues jumping at shadows again.
A research article published in NeoBiota in late July 2021 quantified the economic costs of non-native invasive species to Australia.
Whilst the study has its clear limitations (the exclusion of native invasive flora and fauna with the exception of the Dingo, and the failure to recognise any counterbalancing economic benefits of the species under review key amongst them), nonetheless it collates and examines solid data about the true scale and impacts of introduced plants and animals in the Australian landscape.
News reporting of the research understandably focused on the so called ‘Top 10’ invasive species with headlines such as “Invasive species cost nation $390 billion, top 10 named and shamed”. The accompanying graphic that appeared in Australian Community Media publications is reproduced below.
Contrary to the almost constant rhetoric about wild deer in the Australian landscape, they do not make the ‘Top 10’, in fact, wild deer do not rate a single mention in the forty-page manuscript.
These facts of course did not deter the anti-hunting ideologues at the Invasive Species Council, with their CEO Andrew Cox, presumably ignorant of the content of the actual study, telling reporters “A good example is if we can stop the spread of deer to more agricultural parts of the country, and stop the grazing impact they have, which lowers a farm’s income.”
Curiously, across over six hundred media appearances and fifty-four separate statements this year, Mr Cox has mentioned any of the species in the ‘Top 10’ on just four occasions (all of them being about foxes). By contrast he has mentioned deer twenty times, a whopping 37% of his efforts, followed closely by horses (30%). Nothing about cats, rabbits, fire ants or pigs. Clearly there is an agenda here and clearly it isn't all about guarding biosecurity and biodiversity.
We need to deal with negative impacts from wild deer when and where they present. Recreational deer hunters are the largest stakeholder group in wild deer and the largest killers of wild deer by an order of magnitude. Effective management relies on genuine collaboration between all stakeholders, that cannot happen when context, and facts are removed from the conversation to suit the undisclosed agenda of a small group that makes lots of noise and delivers few results.
Further Reading:
Bradshaw CJA, Hoskins AJ, Haubrock PJ, Cuthbert RN, Diagne C, Leroy B, Andrews L, Page B, Cassey P, Sheppard AW, Courchamp F (2021) Detailed assessment of the reported economic costs of invasive species in Australia. In: Zenni RD, McDermott S, García-Berthou E, Essl F (Eds) The economic costs of biological invasions around the world. NeoBiota 67: 511–550. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.67.58834
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