Deer and the laws of attraction

THERE’S a lot of talk about the possibilities reintroduced golden and white-tailed eagles create for attracting tourists to the west coast, but what about animals that have been here thousands of years?

This summer cars could be seen parked on roadsides around Killarney National Park while their occupants looked over ditches and hedges at magnificent red deer, grazing peacefully but observant of the onlookers.

The native Killarney herd is believed to be here for anything from 7,000 to 10,000 years and is a definite tourist attraction. But beautiful as they might be, the deer are not to everyone’s liking. They can be a nuisance to farmers and other landowners and are involved in traffic accidents when they roam outside the boundaries of the national park.

Over the years, we’ve heard calls to erect better fencing around the park and there are occasional demands for culls to control numbers. All that sounds very sensible, but given the size of the park — 26,000 acres — fencing would be impractical, according to National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).

What’s more, deer are protected under the Wildlife Act and, as wild animals, are free to go wherever they wish. Indeed, the law says the exact opposite to what farmers want. The NPWS is not obliged to fence them in, but landowners can fence them out of their land.

If deer are causing damage, farmers can apply for a licence to shoot them. Following an application, the situation on a farm would be assessed and other options, such as relocating deer, would be looked at first. But shooting a deer would be a last resort, says the NPWS.

We’re now coming to the rutting (breeding) season when the call of powerful stags can be heard echoing through the glens. Aggression among males is starting to increase, neck muscles swell and thick manes are growing. It’s possible sika deer could have started the rut already — they are often five to six weeks ahead of the reds.

Stags are cleaning their antlers and soon have an appearance of immense strength. They are also using their antlers more, shaking their heads and giving short jabs.

In his authoritative book, The Wild Red Deer of Killarney, Sean Ryan writes: “By mid-September aggression is more marked. Mature stags, in particular, are increasingly intolerant of each other, and there are short chases as they attain peak condition. These animals will be the first to rut.

“Traditionally, the first roars on the mountain are heard in the last week in September, but there is roaring in the lowlands as early as mid-September. When the first roaring is heard, the rut has commenced."