Minister rejects new report and keeps plan to eliminate sika deer

Denmark will continue managing sika deer as an invasive species despite a new study finding no evidence that they have interbred with native red deer, Nature and Animal Welfare Minister Christian Rabjerg Madsen told DR.

“We have implemented the rules as leniently as possible, and we will continue to do so,” he said.

The European Union added the originally Asian deer to its list of unwanted invasive species about a year ago after hybrids were observed in countries including Scotland and Ireland. Denmark has reported no such crossbreeding, prompting a major debate over how the rules should be applied.

A comprehensive study of blood samples from sika deer and red deer across Denmark found that the two species have not mixed genetically, despite having lived alongside each other for more than 125 years.

“It does not happen,” said Niels Tommerup, a senior researcher and genetics expert at the University of Copenhagen.

Madsen said the finding was positive and supported Denmark’s lenient approach. In practice, however, that approach means deer parks across the country must shoot male sika deer to prevent further breeding.

Many parks had delayed action while waiting for the DNA study and the minister’s response. With an EU deadline next summer, time is running short. Holbæk Deer Park is preparing to shoot its male sika deer this autumn to prevent more calves from being born.

At Marselisborg Deer Park, the number of sika deer shot each year has been increased to reduce the enclosed population gradually until the animals are gone.

The process is moving faster at Jægersborg Deer Park, where half the sika population was shot last year and the remainder is due to be killed within the next few weeks.

Madsen said this was not the government’s preferred outcome. Denmark voted against placing sika deer on the EU’s list of invasive species, and he said the new report provided another professional argument for maintaining the government’s position.

He rejected the idea of Denmark seeking an exemption from the EU rules to keep sika deer, as Austria is attempting to do.

Asked whether the government would stop the planned shooting at Jægersborg Deer Park, Madsen said no. He described it as part of the park’s ordinary population management, for which the Nature Agency is responsible.

Competition for food with other deer species is also cited as an argument for removing sika deer, according to the Danish Agency for Green Area Conversion and Water Environment.

Denmark has about 2,100 sika deer, accounting for less than 1 per cent of the country’s total deer population. The lack of hybrids may be explained partly by differences in size: Danish sika deer are relatively small, while red deer in Denmark are larger than those in Ireland and Scotland, where hybrids have been observed.