{"id":650198,"date":"2026-10-10T03:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T03:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/650198\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T03:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T03:02:18","slug":"open-to-anyone-more-hunters-needed-to-cull-booming-deer-population","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/650198\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Open to anyone&#8217; &#8211; More hunters needed to cull booming deer population"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Anyone without a criminal record can train to cull deer and help tackle their surging population, the National Deer Management Programme has said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The deer rutting season is at its peak in October, meaning many hormonal animals lose focus and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newstalk.com\/news\/wolves-2264457\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">charge onto the roads, oblivious to oncoming cars.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Drivers have been urged to be vigilant and there have been calls for an increase in the number of deer culled, to reduce the risk to motorists.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newstalk.com\/shows\/the-claire-byrne-show-2228535\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> The Claire Byrne Show<\/a>, National Deer Management Programme spokesperson Michael Keegan said any landowners with a deer problem should get in touch.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can either engage the services of a hunter yourself or you can work through us,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can give you the details of a hunter and we can arrange in conjunction with the landowner and the hunter to try and sort that problem out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since wolves were hunted to extinction centuries ago, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newstalk.com\/news\/deer-population-out-of-control-due-to-lack-of-wolves-2136263\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">deer have no apex predators in Ireland and their numbers have boomed<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1518441\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/EBTA37.jpg\" alt=\"EBTA37 European gray wolf (Canis lupus lupus), four wolves feeding on a fallow deer, Germany\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\"\/> Four wolves feeding on a fallow deer. Picture by: Alamy.com.<\/p>\n<p>Their huge population has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newstalk.com\/news\/reintroduce-wolves-to-reverse-dramatic-increase-in-road-accidents-environmentalist-1401060\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">significant knockon impact on forestry and biodiversity<\/a>, meaning controlling their numbers is an ecological necessity.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In 2025, there were 79,000 of the animals culled during the open season and this year that figure will be higher again.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;re trying to set up deer management groups throughout the country in conjunction with landowners and hunters,\u201d Mr Keegan added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo try and achieve a better outcome and a more structured approach to deer management across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1622091\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2E0CGWK.jpg\" alt=\"A Red Deer at Killarney National Park in County Kerry\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\"\/> A red deer at Killarney National Park in County Kerry. Picture by: Robertharding \/ Alamy<\/p>\n<p>Mr Keegan continued that people cannot shoot the animals themselves but courses that qualify people to hunt them are \u201copen to anyone\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can apply for a hunting license and become a hunter yourself if you wish to do so &#8211; that&#8217;s not a problem,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce you haven&#8217;t got a criminal record or anything like that, you can just apply for a gun license .\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou do the relevant training courses and away you go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For more updates from Newstalk, join our WhatsApp broadcast channel, or follow our social media channels on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or YouTube.<\/p>\n<p>Main image: Red deer stags. Picture by: Alamy.com\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anyone without a criminal record can train to cull deer and help tackle their surging population, the National&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-650198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}