A week-long cull of wild deer is to start in the ACT next month. The aim is to stop the population growing beyond control.
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It follows a cull of kangaroos in the territory.
The ACT government is also monitoring the spread of brumbies from the Kosciuszko National Park. If wild horses are spotted in the Namadgi National Park, the plan is to shoot them.
Pest control official, Oliver Orgill, said that the deer cull was needed because of the growing numbers. Controlling numbers when the population had grown substantially was very difficult.
Deer were destructive. "They eat native vegetation. They kill trees through antler rubbing," he said.
There are three species of wild deer in the ACT - fallow, red and sambar - whose populations have been increasing in and around the Namadgi National Park.
For a week in early June, helicopters will scout across the Bullen Range, Woodstock and Lower Molonglo nature reserves. When deer are spotted, they will be shot from the air. The reserves will be closed during the cull.
The deer would be humanely shot, Mr Orgill said.
Earlier in the month, a cull of just over 4000 kangaroos was announced, with the animals to be shot over the next eight weeks.
It prompted protests by animal rights activists who picketed commuters at tram stops during the rush hour in Civic.
Government officials are also keeping a close eye on the movement of brumbies after the NSW government called off a call in the face of protest.
A "Wild Horse Management Plan" recommended reducing the number of horses in the Kosciuszko National Park by 90 per cent over 20 years, primarily through culling.
The wild horses were destroying creeks and the wider water supply with their hooves, as well as disrupting a delicate eco-system.
But the NSW government backed off the cull and, instead, deemed the brumbies a protected "national icon".
This prompted fears in the ACT that the brumby population would rise sharply and the animals spread to the Namadgi National Park in the ACT itself.
A spokesman for ACT Environment Minister Mick Gentleman said at the time that if wild horses appeared in the ACT, "our current methods would quickly become impracticable.
"It is likely that aerial shooting ... would need to be introduced."
The policy continues.