New study concludes that hunting access is a key factor in reduced deer abundance

We regularly face claims that recreational hunting is not an effective tool for managing wild deer in Australia. What we know is that, whilst population control is typically not the major motivation of recreational game hunters, hunting still has an impact on populations, in some areas a significant impact, but that is not well understood or researched.

A paper presented to the Conservation through the Sustainable use of Wildlife Conference in 2016 (Bengsen et al) reflected on this and presented hypotheses for the evaluation of the effectiveness of recreational hunting and for when and where better targeting of recreational hunting could be useful.

A new paper (Sotorra et al), published in Australian Zoologist, whilst not specifically setting out to answer questions about the role of recreational hunting, nonetheless makes some interesting and valuable observations about the correlation between hunting access and deer density.

The study set out to answer the question:

“What factors influence detections of Sambar Deer (based on scats) within the Mountain Ash forests of the Victorian Central Highlands?”

Amongst a range of interesting and useful findings about the use of forests of different age classes and structures, the study also made observations about land tenure which indicate a clear correlation between access for recreational hunting and deer numbers:

“There was a marked land tenure effect with the occurrence of Sambar Deer being higher in the Yarra Ranges National Park and closed water catchments than in State Forests. Greater human access including hunting in State Forests may account for this result.”

We continue to advocate for further research and to promote public land access for deer hunters and the role of recreational deer hunters in wild deer management.

Further reading:

Modelling the factors influencing Sambar Deer (Rusa unicolor) occurrence in the wet eucalypt forests of south-eastern Australia

S. Sotorra, D. Blair, W. Blanchard, and D. Lindenmayer

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7882/AZ.2020.040