WILDLIFE Are deer fair game?

Fair game?


Country Sights and sounds
John Shelley

Deer are in the firing line, so to speak, and a campaign of persecution lies in store. Many are the complaints being made about them, and, we must concede, with some justification. Yet things are not as straightforward as they have been portrayed to be.
The animals in question are primarily Fallow deer, the only deer species that occurs with any regularity in the south of county Mayo. We do hear of occasional red deer sightings, though to my mind these are too infrequent by far. The red deer is the native Irish deer. Less than 100 years’ ago it was widespread, but has succumbed to a variety of pressures, even to the point of local extinction.
‘And no harm in that!’ some may assert.
Where, then, do we draw the line? What other creatures are we prepared to do away with altogether, in order that our cabbages may grow unhindered and other aspects of our lives remain undisturbed?
Fallow deer do present a different set of challenges. To begin with they are not native, but originated in southern Europe and were introduced to Ireland by the Normans 700 or so years’ ago. They were brought here as a quarry animal, for the explicit purpose of providing sport and a source of meat. The sport in those days involved chasing the deer around specially constructed deer parks until they could go no further and then killing them.
They still provide sport, though now they are hunted more with the gun than with dogs. At the root of the problems being encountered by farmers and rural gardeners is the manner of modern hunting. We must acknowledge that deer numbers do need to be kept in check. A cull, then, is necessary. But the manner in which a cull is applied is of the greatest importance if it is to achieve its goal.
Sadly, there are a number of so-called sportsmen who are more interested in lining their own pockets than in providing the much-needed service of controlling the deer population. They hunt trophy heads, looking for the males with the best antlers, either for paying clients to shoot or to have the heads mounted by a taxidermist and sold to the highest bidder. Either way, their efforts do nothing beneficial.
By taking the best specimens out of the herd they are ensuring the continual despoliation of these wild animals, as lesser, weaker bucks are left to breed. They also make the task of applying a proper and beneficial cull much more difficult, fragmenting the herds and making the surviving animals wary in the extreme. There are organisations out there that are willing and ready to do the necessary thing in a safe, responsible and efficient manner, but in order for this to be done they need to know specific areas where deer are becoming a nuisance.
Does it matter that Fallow deer are of foreign origin? Or should they be cared for now that they are here?
In answer to that we might consider that we ourselves have only been in this part of the world a few short thousand years. Also, if the Normans had not introduced the Fallow deer, somebody else would have done so. Even in recent times Sika and Muntjac deer have been released into the wild, again by individuals with interests in sport hunting, and these too will soon have outstayed their welcome.
Press reports suggest that the deer population is now greater than it has been for many years. If that is so, I would like to know where all these animals are, for when I go out to see them they are hard to find.
What sort of person wants to go and find deer? Last summer a group of English tourists wanted to do just that. They stayed in small hotels as they explored parts of Mayo, eating and drinking in small establishments and making a contribution to the local tourism industry. I had the pleasure of taking them to look first for red, and then for Fallow deer. They went home with happy memories of Mayo and its wildlife, and left promises to return in the future for more of the same.
Fallow deer are a long established part of the Irish countryside. Anybody contemplating life in areas where deer already live would do well to accommodate them. Good fencing will keep the animals out of the vegetable plot. Responsible driving will cut down the small number of collisions between cars and deer. If they do become a problem, contact the Irish Deer Society or the National Parks and Wildlife Service.