Increase in patrols to combat stag poaching

NIGHT patrols have been stepped up by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) in the south-west in a bid to combat a rise in the poaching of red stags.

The discovery at the weekend of a beheaded red stag, which is a protected animal, is the fifth wild deer carcass to have been found in the wider Killarney area in recent weeks.

Most of the deer have been sika. However a sixth deer, a young red stag, had to be put down by wildlife rangers after he was found staggering around with a number of bullet holes.