There has been a huge increase in the number of wild deer culled by licensed deer hunters this year, according to Deer Alliance, which includes four Irish deer organisations.
The alliance is comprised of the Irish Deer Society, the Wild Deer Association of Ireland, Wicklow Deer Management & Conservation Group and the Wicklow Deer Society.
It said that 65,547 deer were culled across the three species: red deer hybrids, sika deer and fallow deer, indicating a 20% surge on the number shot in 2022 to 2023, which was already at an all-time high and a multiple of the ten-year average.
Deer Alliance claim that 18,936 of these deer were culled in Co. Wicklow, where the Wicklow Mountains National Park is widely considered to be a breathing ground for deer and therefore a “deer conflict zone”.
The organisation also stated that a total of 6,486 deer hunting licences were issued for the hunting season 2023-2024, together with 1,414 ‘Section 42’ licences, resulting in 12,628 deer being culled during the closed season of May to July, or at night with lamps during the full nine-month season from September 2023 to April 2024.
Regulations
The open season for male deer was also extended in February 2024 and now runs from August 1 to April 30, while the open season for female and antlerless deer was also extended, taking place from November 1 to March 31.
The Deer Alliance provides training for licensed deer hunters and over 3,800 hunters have availed of it’s now mandatory Deer Alliance Hunter Competence Assessment Programme (HCAP) since its establishment in 2003, in partnership with NPWS, Coillte, AGS, IFA.
Course director for HCAP, Liam Nolan, described the increased number of licenses and deer culled as “astonishing” and indicative of the threat level posed by overpopulation.
However, Nolan also maintains that the numbers of wild deer currently being killed is unsustainable and that “any ongoing annual cull at this level will lead to an implosion of the population and to an adverse and unacceptable impact on the biodiversity landscape, where deer have a natural place”.
He said that the “right balance” must be achieved in order to sustain the herd numbers and it must be centred on a science-based approach to deer management.
Expanding the season for male deer from four months to nine will not result in a sustainable population unless female deer are managed in tandem, Nolan said.
“Merely extending the season for female deer into the month of March, when they are heavily pregnant and just weeks short of delivering a fully-formed calf, is not the answer,” Nolan added.
The director for Deer Alliance has expressed concern over “the constant, unrelenting and often ill-informed stream of invective against wild deer, with repeated use of the term ‘non-native, alien species’ in respect of sika deer”.
He said that the term is used to justify the mass extermination of sika deer while disregarding their contribution to biodiversity of fauna in the country, and the same argument could be used against the fallow deer in Phoenix Park which were introduced in the 19th century.
Nolan also said that the majority of exterminations shot under section 42 licences are likely to have taken place during the night using lamps, which is an “inherently dangerous” practice.
“It is seldom possible to identify an adequate backstop for a heavy bullet travelling, hit or miss, at over 3000 feet per second and delivering the equivalent of two tonnes of energy on impact.
“Every shot taken in these circumstances is potentially a breach of Section 8 of the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act, 1990: ‘reckless discharge of a firearm’,” Nolan added.
He reminds landowners that they could be potentially liable for any third-party injuries where they permit night shooting on their land and advices landowners to always insist that any hunters permitted on their land are adequately insured and properly trained to HCAP standards.
Nolan supports the development of a national deer management strategy as recommended by the Deer Management Strategy Group (DMSG), established in 2022 by Minister for Agriculture, Food & the Marine, Charlie McConalogue.
The DMSG advocates for the creation of Deer Management Units (DMUs) in designated conflict zones where there is a superabundance of deer and DAFM has recently published a Request for Tenders for the position of Programme Manager to implement the DMSG recommendations.
The stated value of the tender is €3.4 million over its three-year life.
According to Nolan, all deer control must be carried out safely, efficiently and humanely, by trained and certified licensed professionals, based on science and not just on a “first deer seen gets shot” basis, which unfortunately seems to be the approach favoured by many.