Large traps, aerial culling in PIRSA, Livestock SA battle to stop deer spreading across SA

The feral deer invasion is spreading across South Australia and it’s forcing farmers to roll out a new arsenal to defend their incomes against the pest.

The race is on to stop wild deer from spreading further across SA, with data showing their territory has increased by five per cent over recent years, mirroring a trend across the country.

It comes as Primary Industries and Regions SA (PIRSA) and Livestock SA are trialling new “large-scale traps”, which lure the animals in with feed.

PIRSA national deer management co-ordinator Annelise Wiebkin said there were believed to be more than 30,000 feral deer in South Australia, and more than a million across the country.

She said the animals were found across about 40 per cent of the state’s agricultural areas.

The South-East has a large concentration of deer, but they’re also on the Fleurieu Peninsula, in the Adelaide Hills, Mid North and small patches of the Eyre Peninsula and Murraylands.

There has been a five per cent increase in the area now home to feral deer compared with five years ago.

“They’re a problem for primary production, the environment and road safety,” Dr Wiebken said.

“In native habitats, they eat trees and plants including those that are threatened and vulnerable and … trample habitats.

“They can wallow in waterways and cause erosion problems as well and particularly, they eat saplings and seedlings.”

A large groups of feral deer in the Waite Conservation Reserve.

Landowners are responsible for managing deer on their properties and landscape boards and National Parks and Wildlife also carries out aerial shooting.

Dr Wiebkin said publicly funded programs killed more than 2500 feral deer in SA last financial year, and about 2700 the year before.

PIRSA is also trialling a “deer aggregator”, using a feeder with food attractive to deer.

Livestock SA Project Manager Pene Keynes said the organisation was trialling large-scale deer traps on the Fleurieu Peninsula, Clare Valley and in the state’s South-East.

The traps, which cost about $10,000-$20,000 each, are fenced areas measuring are up to 3000sq m, with a gate mechanism that when activated, allows the animals to enter, but not to leave.

Ms Keynes said different types of feed, such as beans, grasses and hay, were being trialled inside the traps, which were set up along deer tracks.

She said apart from competing with livestock for feed, deer also brought biosecurity risks.

The animals have been introduced in Australia various times since the 1800s for hunting. Fallow and red deer are most numerous in SA.

[e-mail]