Feral deer numbers are exploding in Tasmania and costing farmers $80m a year

Farmers and the Invasive Species Council are fed up with a lack of action on Tasmania’s feral deer problem. Why there are calls for action.

Fallow deer in Tasmania

As the number of feral deer explodes in Tasmania, it has been estimated they are costing the agricultural sector up to $80m a year in damage to infrastructure and crops.

Invasive Species Council’s Tasmanian Conservation Officer Dr Tiana Pirtle said feral deer numbers were growing by 11.5 per cent per year and had spread to now cover 27 per cent of the state as well as Bruny and King Islands.

“Feral deer numbers have jumped dramatically in recent years. There are now potentially 100,000 feral deer trampling and trashing the state,” she said.

“Feral deer are now damaging iconic protected areas like Freycinet National Park and the World Heritage Area.

“They are causing crashes on the roads around Launceston and eating the seedlings that forestry or Landcare groups plant around the state.

“It’s absurd that Tasmania is basically the only place in Australia where feral deer are protected by law rather than treated as a serious invasive threat.”

Fallow deer stag in Tasmania.

Dr Pirtle said unlike most of the rest of Australia, Tasmania still treated deer as “a protected hunting resource”, rather than a serious environmental, biosecurity, and agricultural threat.

“Feral deer numbers have exploded across Tasmania, growing by 40-fold since 1985 and without effective control are predicted to keep growing to over 1m within 30 years.

“Feral deer are costing the agricultural sector up to $80 million a year in damaged infrastructure and crops.”

Dr Tiana Pirtle, Invasive Species Council's Tasmanian conservation officer.

TasFarmers president Ian Sauer agreed feral deer numbers were “expanding dramatically” into suburban areas and high conservation areas causing extensive damage.

“The deer can travel quite large distances at night time, they can jump most fences and so they’re living in the bush where it’s nice and warm and then they’re coming on to the farmer’s land to basically eat cheesecake and pavlova every night at midnight and wander back.

“The problem is that they are decimating and trampling crops, they’re eating large amounts of crops and pasture and they’ll push fences around, so they are quite destructive.”

Mr Sauer said the feral deer were now in mobs of between 300 and 500 and the damage on both public and private property was “getting quite enormous”.

“They just shouldn’t be here in Tasmania, full stop.

“They’re creating economic and environmental damage on farms and the farmers are the ones paying for that and they’re paying for it daily.

“The bulk of the farmers who are in getting invaded by large numbers of deer have just had a gutful of it.”

Dr Kerry Bridle, an ecologist based in the Tasmanian Midlands, says feral deer are increasing the cost of tree regeneration.

She said it now costs about $30 to protect a single sapling from feral deer.

“This is almost 10 times higher than the amount allocated in grants awarded using public funds for biodiversity protection.

“This means that landholders must pay the shortfall to ensure our forests will persist into the future, providing habitat for native wildlife and shade and shelter for livestock.”

Dr Pirtle also fears the huge risks feral deer pose to road users.

She says male fallow deer can weigh up to 100kg.

“Hitting an animal that large at 110kmh will result in major car damage at best and at worst, a fatal accident.

“Between 2013 and 2021, 68 deer-vehicle collisions were recorded.”

Dr Pirtle hopes the next Tasmanian government will remove the protected status for feral deer and there will be funding for a “targeted and sustained culling programs in priority areas”.

She stresses that a broad range of diverse community groups have been calling on governments to “act before it’s too late”.

Originally published as Feral deer numbers are exploding in Tasmania and costing farmers $80m a year