One for you Gryph. Will we see an increase in numbers post fires like what was claimed in (was it 09)?

What about other deer species in NSW etc?

Yes,despite what the doom and gloom mobs go on about with 'massive deer kills' in the fires historically the precedent has been set with all of the previous fires.
Regrowth in burnt areas means a proliferation of sambar food and if there are no deer in those areas there will soon be.

How big an issue is the displacement of deer into areas that traditionally did not have deer?

When I first started hunting sambar in the late 1990s, I had a few conversations with guys that had been hunting them since the 1950s or earlier. They all maintained that the most significant factor in sambar increasing their range was the result of bush fire.

Just anecdotal, but it seems to have been born out the last few decades. Sambar are far more numerous and in far more areas than they were a few decades ago. Obviously there are other factors at work as well, but fire is a very significant driver in how they disperse.

When we got to Canberra in 2010 I was told Sambar lived from the Canberra city limits to the south coast, east of the dividing range. I personally saw sambar walking around a rural part of Melbourne. And saw road kills within 5 km of my house.

Someone told me the pig doggers were also responsible, as they had pushed them around. I don't know if that is a real causal factor, but ??

quote:

I was told Sambar lived from the Canberra city limits to the south coast,

Sambar were sighted on the outskirts of Canberra in the early 70`s according to Arfa Bentley. AB`s book also has a pic of a sambar outside Berrigan NSW
I was shown a photo yesterday taken by a mate a couple of months ago at his property. The deer was in a tree lane and jumped when he drove past.

Unbelievably 50 k`s NORTH Of Albury..there is NOTHING out there except cropping country.

Do the fires really kill sambar? I am retired from the US Forest Service and worked on lots of fires. I never saw a deer or elk that was killed by the fire. In Yellowstone in 1988 it was common to see elk move outside the area that was burning and graze in the smoke. They evolved with fire and now to keep out. I am sure a few deer or elk may be occasionally killed but think it is not common.

Plenty of deer will survive the fires. But yes, plenty of deer, including sambar will have been killed. The scope of the fires is just too vast for them all to avoid it. I Dont think I can embed a post from Instagram, so I lifted this from one of the feeds I follow:

No matter the species
that's a terrible way to die.

George

quote:

Originally posted by muzza:
How big an issue is the displacement of deer into areas that traditionally did not have deer?

Fences burn down too, be some great heads in few years with all the regrow after the fires.

I had not thought of that, but with all the game farms I am sure some new blood has been released into the wild with these fires.

Is Water Valley in the fire zone?

The fires certainly seem to spread sambar range but I wonder how they actually increase numbers so much.

After maybe the 2006 fires one of the ADA stalwarts walked down a long creek and found 58 dead deer, mostly females. His take on it was the stags were quicker to clear out but that the hinds would not leave their calves.

More feed, less competition. Higher percentage of remaining female population successfully rearing young. Often somehow the ratio of females born increases dramatically too.
We see it here with goat control operations. Goats under heavy predation by culling start having multiple births and high rates of female young.

Could be something in that, Craig. We know that other species somehow adjust the sex of offspring in certain circumstances.