Project Recap: Deer Monitoring
In 2019 we received money from AGVIC to undertake a deer monitoring project
Basically we wanted to get young people aware of how bad deer are for Gippsland’s environment. [Hint: they’re REALLY bad]
We figured if young people understand that deer are causing havoc on our native wildlife and bush, they’ll be more likely to do stuff to manage them or become advocates for deer control in the region.
We planned to run three monitoring events across Gippsland in 2020 in Trafalgar, Yinnar and in Woodside. However, COVID meant we had to not only cancel our Woodside event, but also cap the number of people who could attend.
Event 1 -Magic stzelecki foothills rainforest hike
Our first event. We got super lucky with perfect weather to head into the misty Strzelecki rainforest to set up trail cameras to monitor deer at a private property behind Trafalgar.
Lead by the legendary Shannon from Gippsland Water and Brad and Pat from ProCon we cruised over waterfalls and under massive trees ferns to see and hear about the impact feral deer are having on the bush and about management of deer in the area.
They showed us how to set up wildlife cameras and the signs that deer were present in the area. We met lots of new faces, including several legends who had made the trip all the way from Melbourne.
So what did we find?
Once we retrieved our cameras, we found both red deer and fallow deer at the site.
For some great information on deer ID, check out this brochure via NSW DPI.
Event 2 - Into tallest tree country - deer monitoring in yinnar south
Our second event was a little less sunny than our first, but no less interesting. We trudged along muddy long tracks, between bursts of sun and drizzles of rain... and learnt all about deer. COVID restrictions meant the event was capped at 10 people, giving the group a great opportunity to chat and meet one another during the day.
Our resident redneck greenies Matt and Brad shared their stories and expert knowledge about the negative impact of deer on the bush and tips to look for deer. We also installed wildlife cameras to monitor deer so we could enter our findings into DeerScan.
We found loads of evidence of deer including deer tracks and broken branches on trails in areas likely commonly to be tracks for deer.
What we found
Our committee members headed out and collected the cameras in December 2020. Several of our cameras were stolen (we left them out a bit longer than we intended thanks to COVID!) but we still managed to capture footage of sambar deer at the site.
‘Numbers’ from the project
For a fairly disjointed project [blown out thanks to COVID lockdown time] we were able to achieve lots including:
created one documentary of the project: https://f.io/m2V2gVhf
reached over 2000 people on social media with posts about the issue of deer
hosted 30 people at two monitoring days who were provided with brochures and information about DeerScan and deer id
set up 10 wildlife cameras
climbed up the steepest mountain you’ve ever seen
listened to five expert speakers
had two wildlife cameras stolen
gained two new committee members
had stories about the days and the deer problem on WIN news, ABC Gippsland and the Sentinel Times
shared one vegan chocolate cake (pre-COVID)
presented about the day at another Intrepid event in the north-east
