Feral animals cause billions of dollars damage each year while severely impacting native flora and fauna. In Victoria's beautiful Otways, deer numbers are out of control, but the animals are a protected species.
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00:00 The dense, cool temperate rainforests and old growth trees in Victoria's Otways make
00:07 it a biodiversity wonder.
00:11 But underneath these lush canopies, growing hordes of unwelcome, destructive pests roam
00:17 without a care in the world.
00:19 It really is the perfect little environment for them to thrive and I'd hate to think how
00:24 many there are here.
00:26 He's talking about deer. Introduced 150 years ago for hunting, for a long time they were
00:32 just a curiosity in the landscape.
00:34 But their numbers have grown at an alarming rate and they're now found in nearly 40% of
00:40 Victoria.
00:41 They're running up a national damage bill of $91 million a year, much of that to agricultural
00:48 pastures.
00:49 I harvest three nights a week, sometimes four, depending on numbers of orders that I have.
00:56 Anthony kills between 400 and 500 fellow deer each year from private land and forestry plantations
01:03 in the Otways.
01:04 I don't know what program is going to actually eliminate.
01:09 The word eliminate meaning there's no more there.
01:12 I can't see that in my lifetime.
01:16 The Invasive Species Council says deer populations have expanded beyond the ability of any hunting
01:22 activity to control them.
01:24 Deer also remain a protected species under the Victorian Wildlife Act, something the
01:29 council says urgently needs to change.
01:32 This is really important, not just so that they are dealt with as a pest, but at the
01:37 moment we've got this really confused position in the community where some people see deer
01:41 as being a pest and an annoyance and something has to be done about them.
01:45 The neighbour next door thinks they're cute and likes the idea of having them around.
01:50 So there's this inconsistent approach to how we manage deer.
01:54 On top of that, the government's actually investing money, tax-based money, into deer
01:58 control at the same time protecting them.
02:00 So it's really a ridiculous situation.
02:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]