QLD: Deer hunting an untapped resource says academic

AAP General News (Australia)
04-27-2000
QLD: Deer hunting an untapped resource says academic

By Gil Breitkreutz

BRISBANE, April 27 AAP - Deer hunting in southeast Queensland was a largely untapped
resource despite adding at least $1 million a year to the state's economy, a university
researcher said today.

Up to 20,000 red deer run free over 750,000 hectares of rural land from the Mary Valley
to the southern Darling Downs where properties suffer widespread damage to fences and
crops.

Gordon Dryden, a senior lecturer in animal nutrition, said calls by farmers for organised
culling would waste a valuable resource.

The deer are descendants of six fawns from England's Great Windsor Park presented to
Queensland by Queen Victoria in 1873.

Crows Nest cattleman and politician Russell Cooper said the rampaging deer spread cattle
ticks into tick-free areas, adding further costs to beef producers.

"The feral herds explode in good seasons. They're worse than bloody rabbits," Mr Cooper said.

But Dr Dryden, of Queensland University's Gatton campus, said: "I understand the problem
but wholesale slaughter is not the answer."

He said only a small number of hunting safaris were organised at present, with shooters
paying a trophy fee of up to $500 for the right to down a nominated stag with antlers.

"In the US, deer hunting is a multi-million dollar business with trophy fees of $6,000
per stag and hunters paying a $25 a day licence fee," Dr Dryden said.

Even in New Zealand the trophy fees reached $3,400, with half going to the safari operator
and half to the property owner.

Dr Dryden said deer hunting generated taxidermy fees, and provided venison, although
the restaurant trade favoured meat from deer farms.

Deer hunting also added to the tourist industry.

"Wild deer in southeast Queensland have certainly increased, but even the present level
of hunting, plus the natural enemies such as dingoes and wedge tail eagles, has stopped
the country being over-run," he said.

AAP geb/cd/bwl

KEYWORD: DEER

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