DEER BECOME PEST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23107, 5 February 1937, Page 10

DEER BECOME PEST

IN SYDNEY’S NATIONAL PARK PROPOSED EXTERMINATION (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, Jan. 30. The trustees of Sydney’s National Park, a large area of natural bushland preserved for all time as a people’s playground, some 20-odd miles from the metropolis, have a problem similar to that which has faced farmers and others in parts of New Zealand. Years ago a few deer were released in the park area. They have for long been a source of great and popular interest to visitors to the park, many of them being tame enough to take food offered to them. But they have thrived so well in their new habitat that the few originals have left large herds which roam the gullies and rocky scopes of the park. The rangers have reported that the damage the deer do is increasing to such an extent that the animals have become a nuisance.

The principal complaint against the deer is that they strip bark from young trees, and thereby kill new growth. Many patches of bushland have been thinned to ugliness, and the deer are thus preventing the fulfilment of one of the park objectives—the preservation of the natural bush. A further complaint is that the herds are beginning to forsake National Park itself and are encroaching on South Coast pastures and dairying lands to the south of the park. The trustees have therefore decided that the herds are to be exterminated, or at least so thinned out that they will cease to be a pest. The method of extermination is worrying the trustees, who desire not to offend public susceptibilities. It is generally believed that first-class marksmen will be employed to do the killing, but a suggestion is being considered that detachments of machine-gunners should be borrowed from the military authorities, as they were in Western Australia to exterminate flocks of emus. , The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is not opposed to destruction, but urges that it should be done by humane means. “If something is not soon done to control them the deer will become absolutely noxious, and will not only be 'a nuisance to farmers but destructive to crops, said the president of the society (Mr WG. Acocks). “ The deer is a beautiful animal, and it should be reasonable to keep alive a small proportion of the 600 said to be roaming in National Park. For the rest of them, let us immediately kill them in a huqiane manner.? I have had experience with them in New Zealand and other places, and I am convinced that at large they, are pests. I do not favour the issue of licences to farmers or competent gun club men to shoot them. The killers would have to be exceptionally good shots, and even then some of the deer may be wounded and escape to the bush. I favour a plan for decoying them into a paddodck where feed is good, and then killing them off quickly and humanely. The manner the killing, once they were rounded up, could be decided by the R.S.P.C.A. It is an easy thing to decoy the deer into paddocks.” , , Deer are closely protected in Victorian national parks and reserves, unless their number increases to an extent where they cause loss. Recently a deer drive was ordered in the Gembrook district, where the deer had increased to a considerable extent. Because of the elaborate equipment needed, and the heavy demands on the skill of the hunters, few Were shot.