Deer cull leads to fewer road accidents and plant regeneration

A cull of 240 wild deer last winter in the Killarney National Park is leading to fewer road accidents and to a regeneration of woodland plants in the park’s ancient woodlands.

The bilberry, in Ireland known as the frochin-berry, a rich source of antioxidants, is flowering for the first time in decades. Normally eaten to the root by the deer, vaccinium myrtillus, associated with dyes, cooking and medicine, is thriving on higher ground in the park this year.

Both male and female, red and sika were culled during the 2019-20 operation, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) confirmed.

With no natural predator, the deer, estimated to number 1,500 last year, are over-running farm, wood and roadways, and public campaigns had been under way to halt their numbers.

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Culling was completed prior to the Covid-19 outbreak and 198 red deer, a unique species, as well as 41 sika were taken out by specially trained wildlife rangers attached to the NPWS.

Opposition

Culls of the native red deer previously led to complaints from the public and a protest by animal rights people took place earlier this year during the operation at the Demesne area near the town of Killarney.

However, a cull is set to be repeated next autumn, the Department of Culture and Heritage has said.

“The department is conscious of the sensitivity that is attached to the management of the deer in Killarney National Park,” owing not only to the unique genetic purity of the herd and the value that they add to the ecology of the park but also the value that they add to the local economy,” a spokeswoman for the department said.

But where deer species are increasing in range and numbers, depending on the annual count and instances of damage caused by deer to habitats (especially woodland), culls need to be carried out to ensure that deer populations do not reach levels that would have negative ecological consequences, according to the spokeswoman.

As well as resurgence of frochins, young oak and beech are making an appearance on the forest floor.

The NPWS is also dealing with fewer complaints from farmers about deer eating the early grass, and facing fewer calls about road-stricken deer.

“Normally we have calls at night and sometimes several each week. But in the past weeks, there has been just one,” according to officers.

Meanwhile, a stunting disease, which the NPWS believes is linked to copper-deficiency among the red deer, is still being investigated.