Invasive Australian roe deer

Australia adopts tough plan to combat deer overpopulation!

Adequate: Roe deer and other deer may be magnificent animals, but their population has multiplied by 10 in Australia in twenty years, where specific control measures have proven insufficient:

In the 1980s, there were about 50,000 deer nationwide. After 40 years, they are estimated at one to two million individuals and their numerical and geographical progress seems unstoppable.

We must now take the bull by the horns – if I may say so – and consider drastic measures. Because if we don’t do anything, they could soon take over the entire island continent.

How did we get here?

There are no deer in the natural state in the country. This means they have no predators in Australia. They were introduced by British settlers in search of “European-style” game: hunting deer is more noble than kangaroo.

In addition, farms for meat have been developed. Except that hunter numbers have collapsed and game meat has gone out of fashion. So domesticated deer were released or managed to escape and breed freely.

However, a deer weighs 200 kg and it moves in a herd. This results in hundreds of car accidents a year and entire regions – even cities – destroyed in their wake. Because these shy animals graze everything and therefore sterilize the soil.

Isn’t this the first time Australia has faced this kind of problem? !

You could even say that the story falters! The same problem – and for the same reasons, namely poaching – arises with rabbits. The story is well known: in 1859, 22 pairs brought from England were released into the wild.

Within fifty years, millions of their descendants had conquered the entire Australian continent. Everything has been tried to eradicate them, including the introduction of viruses, but nothing works and constantly, the eradication process must be repeated.

The same goes for camels, which were introduced in the 19th century to cross the country’s deserts in caravans. The railways have rendered their services useless: they have now returned to the wild by the hundreds of thousands in unruly herds.

Back to the deer, what was the solution?

Yesterday, a plan called “population control” was presented: it consists of regrouping them in buffer zones and then allowing special teams to slaughter them en masse, like camels, by helicopters.

These operations take place at night – to avoid hunting accidents as much as possible – and use thermal cameras to detect animals. As for the corpses, there is no question of collecting them: they will be abandoned on the spot …