Ali Hussain, writing for The Sunday Times, is fed up with muntjac deer and he has suggested that they are shot and eaten. But he admits that there are problems with the suggestion.
Firstly, he tells us that he bought a home in Norfolk close to the Waveney River because he had harboured for a while a project to have a large plot of land where he can plant trees. He moved out of London to realise the project but found that muntjac deer are eating it away.
They have chewed through his tulips and bluebells. And he’s pissed off with this small deer species which happens to be an invasive species in the UK. The phrase “invasive species” or “non-native species” are derogatory ones. They encourages people to dislike these animals even though, they been in the country for a very long time sometimes. Such as the muntjac deer which was introduced to England from south-east China in the early 19th century by John Russell Reeves. He worked for the East India Company.
The muntjac deer establish itself in the wild in about the 1930s and at a guesstimate, in 2019 a report put the total population in the UK at 150,000. Most of them are in England. According to the British Deer Society, the number is likely to be much larger.
They are no bigger than a medium-sized dog according to Mr Hussain who adds that they are destroying gardens and causing traffic chaos “across swathes of south-east England and parts of Wales”.
I live in south-east England, in Surrey, and I’ve never seen a muntjac deer! I don’t think there are marauding armies of muntjac deer criss-crossing the country in great herds because I just not seen them.
He says that they are particularly problematic as they are small enough to get through garden fences. And they aren’t afraid of people in contrast to the larger deer species.
The associate professor of biodiversity and ecosystem management at Leeds University, Alistair Ward, describes the species as “the most problematic deer species in England and Wales”.
They been linked allegedly to a decline in nightingales because they eat their habitat. And it is also alleged that they cause thousands of road accidents annually in the UK. It doesn’t stop there; they also scrape the sap from the bark of small trees
Although Ali Hussain does not use the word “pest” his descriptions of the damaged caused by the muntjac strongly indicates that he believes that they are.
Defra (government dept. dealing with agriculture) is looking into the problem and have proposed controlling population numbers by hunting them for meat as the venison is very tasty. Or they could introduce the medium-sized wild cat species the lynx to prey on them. This in fact is a well-advanced proposal but objected to by the farmers.
You’ll need landowners and farmers on your side if you are going to hunt muntjac deer for venison.
Under the Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order 2019, in the UK, as the muntjac deer is an invasive species, their capture and rerelease is not permitted in the UK but you can shoot them provided that you have a gun licence. You will also need the permission of the landowner.
The species is culled under the Deer Act 1991. They can be hunted throughout the year but Mr Hussain tells us that hunters tend not to target muntjac because they are much smaller and less profitable. A dead muntjac deer fetches £5 from a dealer. You can get £50-£70 for a large dear. The price of venison has dropped in the UK because of market forces.
So, what can Mr Hussain do? He was advised by the Royal Horticultural Society to plant near his home because muntjac are less likely to encroach nearer the house. Also, they tend to avoid plant species such as lilac, bay and honeysuckle so there are ways around the problem which are decidedly more humane.
My personal thought is that any suggestion of hunting is inhumane. It’s going to cause pain and why do humans have the right to cause pain to an animal just because they are munching away on their tulips? The reaction seems to me to be highly out of proportion. One of the guidelines in life is that reactions should be proportionate to the problem being dealt with.
But Mr Hussain wants to see muntjac biryani on the menu at the local Indian restaurant. That, he would consider to be sweet revenge for the loss of his plants.
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