Cost effective management of Wild Deer

Wild deer are present in all Australian states and territories and are causing increasing agricultural and environmental impacts including: eating and fouling pasture, crops and other agricultural products; vectors of diseases and pathogens; providing food for dingo and fox populations; altering native plant communities; interspecific competition with native fauna; habitat modification; and changing water quality and soil properties. The six species of deer present in Australia occupy a wide variety of habitats including savannah rangeland (chital deer), agricultural (fallow deer and red deer), plantation forests (sambar and red deer), and montane forest (sambar deer). Since all six species have not yet attained their maximum potential distributions, it is highly likely that the impacts of wild deer will increase greatly unless deer cost-effective management solutions are identified and adopted.