A new project is to examine the amount of deer in Ireland by looking at their diets and testing faecal samples.

Atlantic Technological University (ATU) is looking to hire two new postgraduate PhD researchers for the project; one to genotype faecal samples and one to look at the diet of the deer.

“Deer populations have reached extreme levels throughout Ireland, resulting in serious financial and environmental damage to forests and agriculture.

“Stakeholders are however struggling in identifying deer density thresholds which set the limit between sustainable and unsustainable populations and can inform management actions aimed at reducing localised high-density populations and related effects on Irish biodiversity,” ATU said.

The project is funded by the Department of Agriculture under the DeerImpact project and also involves UCD and Maynooth University and the project is aimed at looking at more novel methodologies combined with more traditional approaches to accurately measure the impact of deer on vegetation.

Faecal samples

The goal of the first PhD project is to use non-invasive genotyping of faecal samples to estimate the densities of the three established deer species (red, sika and fallow) in Ireland.

Modelling from this genetic data will be used to estimate abundances/densities in the three species and link this with other components of the project.

Deer diets

The second PhD project will look at the diet and investigate dietary interactions among the three deer species.

The researcher will integrate the DNA from the faecal samples and camera trap data across the monitoring stations in the project, in order to link deer density and behaviour to diet and subsequently vegetation impact.

The project will take place over the next four years.