THE FIGHT AGAINST MISINFORMATION NEVER STOPS

DEER DIARY Sean Kilkenny

One of the constant challenges presented in the advocacy space regarding wild deer in the Australian landscape is the tendency of those opposed to or anti-deer to have an overly adversarial relationship with the truth.

Never is this more obvious than in the media landscape, where headlines or grabs that drive engagement or clicks are always the order of the day.

It always starts the same way, with deliberately getting their name wrong in their ongoing attempts to demonise wild deer.

Before they then exaggerate their impacts and population size.

Remember when they used to tout that there were 1 million wild deer in Victoria despite there being no evidence to support such a claim?

Now that the Victorian government conducted a three-year study, identifying only 200,000, they moved the goalposts and now refer to a national figure of up to 2,000,000. Of course, this figure is also without basis, given that the Tasmanian government conducted an aerial survey and identified around 50,000 wild fallow deer, while South Australia estimates a population size of only 40,000, which leaves a minor discrepancy of 1,710,000, split between the Queensland Maroons and the New South Wales Blues.

To say it doesn’t pass the pub test is an incredible understatement, especially given that in 2023, the Queensland government estimated that there were only around 10,000 – 15,000 red deer in southeast Queensland, the largest fallow deer herd to be less than 3,000 and the chital population to be in the tens of thousands, rounding up, we could call that 50,000…leaving a mere 1,660,000 in New South Wales.

Even if we took a million off their numbers, that leaves 660,000 wild deer in New South Wales, three times more than Victoria, hiding in plain sight.

We all know that the lower number, let alone the higher number, isn’t true; there is simply no scientific basis to support it (and if there were, we would accept it). Compared to other states, it doesn’t add up, yet they still use it. So, what does that say when people discard the truth the minute it's not convenient?

At the Australian Deer Association, we have always maintained a science-based and evidence-driven approach to inform the foundation of wild deer management and understanding in Australia. Coupling this with being apolitical and honest places us in the best position to counter the culture war waged by those who appear to be prepared to say or do anything to undermine wild deer management and recreational hunting.

Operating in such an environment places an even greater value on research to fill the vast knowledge gaps regarding wild deer in the Australian landscape, thereby preventing them from being filled with agenda-driven rhetoric.

We will continue to undertake such research and look to inspire the next generation of students to take an interest in wild deer through an inquisitive lens and an open mind. This will ultimately help to shape the conversation regarding wild deer in a mature manner that recognises it as a free-range, nutritious, sustainable, fantastic resource and how we can best use it.