NEW DEER RESEARCH DEBUNKS FALSEHOODS ABOUT DEER ABUNDANCE

HUNTING ABOUT

On Friday, November 3, the Arthur-Rylah Institute for Environmental Research released a report detailing the statewide abundance of wild deer in Victoria.

This is essential data produced by the Victorian government that helps to improve the knowledge gaps surrounding wild deer and their abundance in Victoria.

Wild deer management often must deal with the challenge of out-of-touch lobby groups that fearmonger and attack recreational hunters from the suburbs and regions instead of being pragmatic and evidence-based. This government research debunks such rhetoric and will play an essential role in helping ensure the wild deer management narrative remains fact-based and not subject to erroneous lobby group claims of “millions of deer”.

This research also provides missing context to the annual harvest data estimates. With a total abundance figure on public land, we can then calculate the public land harvest (~70,415) as a percentage of the population. Applying these statistics results in around 37% of Victoria’s wild deer population on public land being harvested by recreational hunters every year.

This is a critical figure as it has significant population impacts and severely limits population growth.To help address knowledge gaps relating to deer distribution, abundance, and impacts within Victoria, the statewide monitoring program was developed and run between 2021-2023.The project aimed to:Design and implement a statewide monitoring program estimating the abundance of deer in Victoria and report the results at statewide and regional scales.

Undertake vegetation assessments at each monitored site.  Produce spatial raster layers of deer densities for each of the four deer species.  Guide on how the monitoring data could be developed to provide ecological indicators of trends in deer abundance and ecological integrity. The project was carried out on public land in Victoria across 253 sites between September 2021 and May 2023.

To target hog deer, an additional 64 sites were selected in South Gippsland and Wilsons Promontory.The results of the survey were that across the 317 camera traps, 148 of them detected deer, and a form of deer sign was recorded at 186 of the 317. This enabled the following total deer abundances to be calculated on public land:Total: 191,153  Sambar 123,061  Fallow 48,932  Red 12,672  Hog 4,243A result from the modelling demonstrated that deer tended to have higher densities closer to pastural land, particularly for fallow and red deer.

This study provides the first estimates of statewide and regional abundance for wild deer in Victoria. It offers valuable information to enable a maturing conversation of wild deer and their management to be grounded in facts and data, not rhetoric and fearmongering by out-of-touch lobby groups.

It should also be noted that this study was undertaken on public land, and there will still be deer unaccounted for on private land. However, the number of deer on private land would not be expected to change the estimated abundance of 191,153 by a significant amount.

Alex Proft addresses the Sydney Branch

The “good times were natural” at the Sydney branch’s November meeting. We had the pleasure of hosting a special guest speaker, Alex Proft, from the YouTube channel’ Aussie Bush Harvest,’ at one of our biggest gatherings to date. Profty is an avid hunter and fisherman who embarked on his hunting journey in the state forests of NSW during his late teens.

Hailing from a non-hunting family, he faced a steep learning curve and embraced the journey with ‘low expectations and high ambitions.’ Fast forward a few years, and he’s now a regular hunter and angler, running a YouTube channel with over 25,000 subscribers, all in an effort to inspire more people to embrace these pursuits.

During his talk, Profty delved into the public relations aspect of hunting, discussing how we can bring non-hunters along on our journey by continuing “to anchor ourselves to the food”.

His top advice for novice hunters? Always remember that when you’re out in the bush, you’re continually hunting, even when you aren’t actively pursuing the game. Each trip and every walk in the bush is an opportunity to gather valuable knowledge and data

GOVERNMENT SHOOTERS MOVE IN ON PRIVATE LAND

The controversial ‘eradication’ plan for wild deer in South Australia has escalated recently.Under the Landscape South Australia 2019 Act, the government has the power to conduct culling activities on a property without the landowner’s permission.

The Limestone Coast Landscape Board has confirmed it has now chosen to utilize this power within the Act on a Wetlands and Wildlife property in the southeast of South Australia.Authorities also have the ability to fine landholders $25,000 for failure to comply with action orders and burden them with costs associated with programs undertaken by the board.Perhaps tellingly, Limestone Coast Landscape Board general manager Steve Bourne was quoted in the Sunday Mail as saying the government’s target “is eradication...if we are able to achieve that”.

The futility of an eradication target is also supported by science and is a warning that this will likely be a waste of a significant taxpayer’s money.Mr. Bourne was quoted in the article as saying, “Hunting will have to take place where deer are treated as a game species, not a pest species.”While it’s not entirely clear of the context of the quote, it does appear contradictory, considering the inability to achieve “eradication.”

States such as NSW, Tasmania, and Victoria have regulated recreational hunting on public land, the leading contributor to deer management and the total of wild deer harvested.While having a more mature approach to wild deer, these states also enjoy huge economic windfalls with thousands of jobs created, enabling its citizens to lead healthier lives as they utilize a pathway to nature that recreational deer hunting provides. All while not inhibiting the management of wild deer.

WILD CHERRIES AND RED DEER

The cherry ballart (wild cherry tree) is a favoured food source for red deer while in velvet. However, they tend to only eat them, not rub them like sambar do. Red deer tend to bunch up in bachelor mobs during velvet before going solo once in hard antler.

THE NOSE KNOWS

Matt Rogers sent in this pic of ahogdeerhind doing its best to use the wind to scenthim.

MONSTER DEAD HEAD

I have a few dead heads over the years but this monster takes the cake. Stalking up a small creek that had stopped flowing and become a series of pools, I was peering in every now and then to look for prints that might show in the muddy banks.

As I looked in, I noticed a deer’s scapula bone and thought to myself, “crikey that's big”. I then saw a number of smaller bones that had been moved down from when the creek was flowing.

I followed them up for about 10m and they led me to this giant red deer head that was hooked onto some tree roots that had been exposed from erosion. This was a new area to me, and I guess this answered the question of whether it holds deer or not.

by Adam Van Der Lugt.

POOKILA RELEASED ALONGSIDE HOG DEER AT WILSONS PROMONTORY

We have previously written about the apparent compatibility of the pookila mouse and the hog deer in several of Victoria’s coastal environments. While doing so, we highlighted that wild deer were not listed as a key threatening process. Instead, predation by cats and foxes and a change in the plant community driven by the coastal tea tree are.

And that hog deer and the pookila have lived together for around 100 years in some of these environments. In recognition of the need to help the pookila from these key threatening processes, the Melbourne Zoo and Moonlit Sanctuary have bred more than 60 pups since 2022 as a part of the Victorian Pookila Conservation Breeding and Reintroduction Program.

As a result of this program, the government announced on Thursday, September 7, that six females had been released across three different locations in Wilsons Promontory.

Hog deer have called Wilsons Promontory home for nearly 150 years. And they weren’t a concern when Wilsons Promontory was chosen as a release site. This adds to the conversation that wild hog deer and the pookila can live harmoniously in the same environment.

NEW VICTORIAN PREMIER'S CABINET RESHUFFLE

On Monday, October 2, 2023, the new Victorian Premier, Jacinta Allan, announced her cabinet.

For recreational deer hunters, the significant change is pairing the relatively new Outdoor Recreation portfolio with Environment. At face value, this appears to be a logical alignment enabling the one Minister to make considered policy decisions.

Minister Steve Dimopoulos will take charge of these portfolios alongside Tourism, Sport and Major Events.

The Australian Deer Association is excited by this change and can see the significant benefits of aligning these portfolios, especially given that recreational activities, such as deer hunting, take place on public land.

Recreational deer hunters are one of the largest stakeholders and users of Victoria's State Forests and National Parks, with over 50,000 licence holders and growing. There are already great foundations in place that the ADA fought for and won; there is now a natural opportunity to expand upon these.

DEER HUNTING CONTINUES TO GROW IN POPULARITY

Game licence entitlements for deer hunting continue to go from strength to strength. With now over 48,000 deer licence holders.

This reflects a growth rate of 550% since 1996.

Recreational deer hunting is predominantly undertaken by males, who comprise 95% of all licence holders.Deer hunters are younger than other licence holders, with the largest cohort (10,438) aged between 28-37.

The geographical spread of deer hunters tends to be from the state's centre to the Far East.

This sharply contrasts with duck hunting, where the largest cohort is men aged over 68.

SAMBAR DIET STUDY HIGHLIGHTS PREFERENCE FOR ACAENA AND EUCALYPTUS

A recent study aimed to explore the diversity of plant species eaten by sambar deer in the Alpine National Park by performing DNA testing on faecal samples.

The study occurred on the Bogong High Plains within the Alpine National Park and featured two study areas less than 10km apart. Collections were sampled from three different vegetation types: snow patch herb fields, grasslands, and wetlands and were collected monthly from January to March.

During the main flowering period in the alpine environment, sambar tended to exhibit an intermediate feeder diet of mostly forbs and shrubs. This is suggested to reflect an opportunistic feeding behaviour due to the shortened growing season and the sambar eating what is abundant and has a high nutritional quality, particularly the forbs (acaena).

The two most frequently consumed plants were the Acaena novae-zelandiae and the Eucalyptus pauciflora, with the Acaena being a forb and the Eucalyptus being a woody growth form.None of the plants detected and considered over-represented in the deer’s diet are threatened on the Bogong High Plains.

The observed differences in the plant species of the faecal pallets between the two study areas, Mt Nelse, and Basalt Hill, suggest that the deer were unlikely to be moving between these two areas despite being within the home range estimates of sambar.

While some rare wetland species, such as the broad-leaf flower rush (Carphabnivicola), Alpine marsh-marigold (Psychrophila introloba), and the silky snow-daisy (Celmisiabsericophylla) were observed in a small number of samples, it appears that sambar are not selectively targeting them. However, routine monitoring of the abundance and distribution of such plants should be undertaken.

NEW TROPHY MEASURERS

Recently, Chief Measurer Ted Wohlers, ran another measuring class, expanding the pool of accredited ADA measurers.