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New footage reveals Gold Coast under feral deer siege

New photos and video reveal invasive chital deer – also known as spotted deer – roaming close to suburban streets in Merrimac and Nerang, raising alarm over the risk of increasing traffic accidents, environmental destruction and a lack of government funding for action.

The Invasive Species Council is urging the Queensland government to assist the Gold Coast City Council to ramp up eradication efforts before the situation spirals out of control – as it has in southern states.

‘Feral deer are one of Australia’s worst emerging invasive threats. They trash habitat, send native wildlife hungry and are increasingly darting across suburban roads, putting communities at risk,’ Invasive Species Council Advocacy Manager Reece Pianta said. 

‘We’ve now got chital deer on the urban fringe of the Gold Coast, with residents reporting traffic accidents and sightings in built-up areas – and yet there’s currently no deer management plan for south east Queensland.

‘Despite being listed as a pest under the state’s Biosecurity Act, the Queensland Feral Deer Management plan is proving inadequate at a regional level in the face of a growing deer problem. There’s no population monitoring, no economic impact study, no regional leadership. We’re flying blind.

‘Unlike Victoria and NSW – where regional NRM groups are empowered to lead coordinated responses – Queensland councils are left to fend for themselves. This is just not working when councils are already under-resourced and dealing with other invasive threats like fire ants. 

‘While we applaud the Gold Coast City Council’s recent efforts and investment in scaled up deer action, this needs to be supported by state government funding and regional planning and coordination with other councils, landowners and government agencies. 

‘The situation on the Gold Coast is part of a growing Queensland deer population problem. 

‘Urgent state action is needed for a targeted south east Queensland deer management strategy across all key local councils. This should involve state-funded deer response coordinators, a proper population estimate and economic impact study, a stakeholder roundtable to drive solutions and a public awareness campaign to encourage sightings and reporting.

‘We can’t make the mistakes of other states. Victoria ignored their deer problem for years – now its population could be around 1 million, leading to an ecological crisis that is  costing millions in control.

‘Deer don’t stop at council boundaries – so neither should our response. It’s time for the state government to show leadership and prevent a full-blown deer crisis across south east Queensland.’

Media inquiries: (02) 8006 5004

Images and videos of invasive species for media to use are available here.

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    Dear Project Team,

    [YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

    The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

    This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

    Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]


    Dear Project Team,

    [YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

    The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

    This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

    Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]