As deer population increases and threatens woodlands, farmlands, and newly planted trees, the government will make culling the animals easier in England. This comes after a “long-awaited” 10-year plan to deal with the deer population “explosion,” according to the BBC.
It is believed that there are over two million deer in Britain, resulting in around a third of woodlands in England damaged and causing crop losses for farmers, at great expense. A deer management strategy has been unveiled by the government to identify priority culling areas, making licensed night-time and closed-season shooting easier. Farmers may also be given new legal rights to shoot deer to protect their crops.
Britain is home to six species of dear: red, sika, fallow, roe, muntjac, and Chinese water. Only the red and roe deer are considered “truly indigenous,” the British Deer Society says. While exact numbers are not known, official estimates have the population at over two million, far more than the estimated 450,000 in the 1970s, and the largest number in a millennium.
Current deer management has failed, the government said. Around a third of woodlands in England is in an “unfavourable condition” as a result of trampling and grazing from deer. That is an increase of 24% since the early 2000s.
Over 74,000 deer are involved in collisions with vehicles annually. Between 10 and 20 people are killed and over 700 are injured in these collisions, according to figures from the RSPCA.
The new 10-year plan from the government hopes to identify priority areas, where focused culling will be needed to streamline the process for licensing the shooting, especially at night and in the closed season, allowing landowners to “more quickly and easily protect crops and timber.”
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