NSW Government introduces DeerScan - a community-led deer monitoring app

With deer now in plague proportions, the State Government has introduced DeerScan, a new feature of the FeralScan website and app where people can report sightings.

The information will give biosecurity agencies and community groups a clear picture of just how many deer there are across the state and where they are located to help prioritise management plans.

In its first six months of use, there has been more than 1700 sightings reported across the state on DeerScan.

It comes after the NSW Government removed the game status of deer in August making it easier for farmers to eradicate the animal from private land.

Department of Primary Industries invasive species officer and FeralScan national coordinator Peter West said the number of reports coming through DeerScan had helped highlight problem areas and enabled them to develop detailed knowledge of where and how deer were using the landscape.

"This information is now allowing land managers and governments to better target management strategies to reduce deer impacts to farms and the environment," Mr West said.

However, Mr West also reiterated that all data collected through DeerScan was managed securely and exact locations of deer sightings were not made publicly available.

Related reading: State Government removes game status for deer

In NSW, Cumberland Land Conservancy member Linda Brown said knowing more about the distribution, rate of spread and the damage deer caused was imperative to ensure their Western Sydney community could take focused action to reduce the impacts deer were causing.

"We started using DeerScan as an additional tool to assist in mapping the damage they cause, while also using wildlife monitoring cameras to measure sightings and abundance," Ms Brown said.

Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall said these results show just how much the NSW feral deer population had exploded in recent years and why it was necessary to take bold action to tackle the issue.

"Removing the game status of deer gives landholders more flexibility to manage the pest, and brings its classification into line with other feral animals such as wild dogs, foxes, rabbits and pigs," Mr Marshall said.

"This regulation change isn't a silver bullet and the NSW Government is exploring a range of options to better control the surging deer population."

Since FeralScan started in 2011, it now has more than 22,000 users and 140,000 pest animal records.

There are 379 groups registered within FeralScan consisting of members working together to share monitoring data and work together to manage pest species.