[ppink]

We came across 2 deer the other night while driving on the road. they were both at spearate locations abut a mile apart. it was about 7pm so we had lights on.
The first one jumped into a garden of a house! the second one was on a narrow road and really had nowhere to go. there were 2 embankments either side and a fence on top. So we stopped the car and dimmed the lights and waited 5 minutes or so and eventually he went back down the road and in an entrance to a field.
Anyway it prompted the question as to what is the best thing to do when you come across this. Is dimming the lights ok? I was afraid to turn them off in case he ran into the car and hurt himself (or us!). what is the best procedure?

[Deer Hunter DL]

i would say you most likely did the best thing , when you say dimmed the lights your talking about your parking lights ? as the dips would still be way too bright, the bright lights coming on them fast really takes a jump out of them and especially now that they are getting poached so much at night with lamps

[ppink]

yes we dimmed to side lights. It is so hard to know what is best to do. I am sure if we kept driving it would have scared the hell out of them

They must be very easy to do this lamping business with as both of them stop dead looking at the lights?

[Deer Hunter DL]

yea sadly its all to easy of a way for poachers to get deer and alot of the time using low powered rifles and not killing the deer out right , i shoot deer my self but do so in a controlled safe manner and under licence and return all info to the NPWS at the end of season and most importantly quickly and eficently to cause little or no stress to the deer i shoot

[ppink]

thanks.

I thought lamping was with dogs, or do they shoot them at night? I was wondering why all of a sudden there were deer in places where we never saw them before, maybe they were scared by something.

[Deer Hunter DL]

they shoot them at night as its the easiest way for poachers to operate but there has been a few cases highlighted where dogs were reported to have been used to take down deer just for fun it was reported to the NPWS and gardi , yea deer all round the country are in places where they never were before because of all the poaching thats going on .

[It wasn't me!]

They're also extremely mobile. Around me it'd typically be pretty high pressure shooting and yet the only places the deer have moved from are those where they were being shot from the road at night and even still, I reckon the real lure was newer abundant forestry just over the hill, where there are now plenty, and despite lots of shooting, they're holding solid there. You'll see them cover huge distances every night though, just depends where they're heading to get out of the weather or to preferable forage or the like. They're awful in lights though. Seem to run towards car headlights. Can only imagine how easy shooting them under the lamp is.

[Wild_Dogger]

Seen a few deer near the M50 the other night.......... they wont last long I thought.

Thank God the property boom is over , urban sprawl has stalled.
To think of all the greenery we used to have now covered in concrete and tarmac.
The poor auld foxes dont know where to go around my area........

[meathstevie]

Originally Posted by Deer Hunter DL

they shoot them at night as its the easiest way for poachers to operate but there has been a few cases highlighted where dogs were reported to have been used to take down deer just for fun it was reported to the NPWS and gardi , yea deer all round the country are in places where they never were before because of all the poaching thats going on .

You might be exagerating a little bit, the main reason why deer relocate can not just be poaching, if that was the case all deer in Kerry should have migrated into the national park by now and the ones down your neck of the woods into Glenveigh. Poaching and other disturbance will no doubt contribute to deer moving about but in my opinion forrestry harvesting and population growth has just as much of an influence. I confidently predict an increase in deer numbers next season because of the soft winter we had.