Victorian aerial cull takes 135 deer

Parks Victoria have advised that the May 2019 pulse of their aerial culling trail took 135 deer. 

We previously reported that the cull was extended due to poor weather.

The trial was completed on Thursday 16 May and adds to the 119 deer killed the previous October. 

The communication from Parks Victoria quotes a metric of one deer per eight minutes taken over the course of the trial. This metric sounds good but actually tells us very little without a clear understanding of the deer/damage relationship, a pre and post cull measure of the damage and relative abundance of the deer and clear and transparent reporting of all costs including administration and downtime. 

All of the culled deer were shot to waste. 

The Australian Deer Association has been involved in deer control operations with Parks Victoria for a number of years and will continue to do so where our volunteers can add value.

We are particularly keen on pursuing control trials by simply engaging the broader deer hunting community and targeting their efforts to areas of concern and by using co-ordinated teams of scent trailing hounds which is proven to be the most efficient and cost effective form of deer control available, particularly in remote, heavily timbered and mountainous country.