{"id":946233,"date":"2026-10-30T09:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T09:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946233\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T09:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T09:52:10","slug":"feral-deer-will-become-australias-next-feral-pig-problem-without-prompt-action-report-warns-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946233\/","title":{"rendered":"Feral deer will become Australia\u2019s next feral pig problem without prompt action, report warns | Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

An unpublished government report on feral deer shows Australia is failing in its efforts to stop the spread of what one advocate warns could become \u201cAustralia\u2019s next feral pig<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The five years from 2020-2025 over which the national feral deer action plan was assessed covers a period in which the famously elusive<\/a> species has increasingly encroached upon major cities, leading to more frequent encounters<\/a> \u2013 including a memorable occasion in which two men in various degrees of undress were fined after becoming lost in the bush when they were spooked by deer while nude sunbathing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The report says deer, one of the country\u2019s \u201cmost rapidly increasing invasive pests\u201d, have both increased in numbers and spread in territory, costing more than $91m in production loss and management time every year.<\/p>\n

Deakin University\u2019s Prof Euan Ritchie, president of the Australian Mammal Society, said he was \u201cnot at all\u201d surprised by this year\u2019s national vertebrate pest management report card.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis report shows that governments are failing miserably to invest enough to control deer populations and the severe impacts that they can have on agriculture, native wildlife and the environment, road safety and culturally significant sites,\u201d Ritchie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what sustained failure to act sufficiently results in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six species of feral deer are established in Australia \u2013 chital, fallow, hog, red, rusa and sambar \u2013 with well-established populations across south-eastern Australia, where densities are highest. There are smaller, more localised populations in South and Western Australia and the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n

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The report card, produced by the National Vertebrate Pest Coordinators, shows every state and territory is failing or floundering in their efforts to control feral deer \u2013 with one notable exception. South Australia, which launched an ambitious statewide eradication plan in 2022, received a green in all four categories assessed under the traffic light system of marking. The report showed \u2013 with high confidence \u2013 that the state had decreased the abundance, distribution and environmental and agricultural impacts of deer.<\/p>\n

New South Wales and Tasmania were given reds in all four categories, while Queensland and the ACT both received three reds and a yellow. No jurisdiction but SA received a single green pass mark.<\/p>\n

Invasive Species Council advocacy manager Reece Pianta said the report confirmed what land managers had been seeing on the ground for some years. In May 2025, the council released footage and images that it said showed the Gold Coast \u201cunder feral deer siege\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pianta said the report, leaked to his organisation, points to \u201ca long-term systemic underfunding of deer control\u201d. He said deer did not have the recognition of other more notorious invasives, but controlling them was every bit as necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeer are the next feral pig,\u201d he said. \u201cThe difference with deer is that an intervention now could make a significant difference to the population numbers and contain, or even reverse, that spread.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While Pianta said deer \u201cprobably can\u2019t be eradicated\u201d from the entire continent, he said South Australia\u2019s \u201cA+\u201d report score showed it was possible to do so in some states and territories, while others would require a long-term effort to contain the spread of deer and mitigate their impacts.<\/p>\n

Adelaide University Environment Institute director Prof Andrew Lowe said the report was a \u201cgood news story\u201d for his state that rang true with what he was seeing on the ground.<\/p>\n

Lowe, who is also member of the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board, which is involved in managing deer, said SA grappled with its \u201cmassive problem with deer\u201d in earnest from 2022, after an agricultural impact estimate showed the $36m worth of damage done every year by deer there was set to increase to $241m by 2031.<\/p>\n

But although deer had \u201cmassively declined\u201d in the few years since a $4m eradication program began, Lowe said deer were seeking refuge on the fringes of urban areas, where culling was more expensive. He said functional eradication of deer from SA would take about another $10m over 10 years.<\/p>\n

The cost of inaction, though, was of a different magnitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t do that, then the population will go up again and we\u2019re going to be in the same situation,\u201d Lowe said. \u201cSo $10m versus $240m \u2013 do the math.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An unpublished government report on feral deer shows Australia is failing in its efforts to stop the spread…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-946233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}