Feral deer in Australia, invading towns.

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From suburban yards to inner-city streets and even at a Bunnings Hardware store, wild deer sightings are increasing across Australia as surging feral population numbers spread across the country.
While they might remind you of Santa’s reindeer, deer are an invasive species causing widespread destruction and environmental damage.
Australia’s first ever national deer management coordinator, Dr Annelise Wiebkin, has been charged with tackling what she describes as one of Australia’s worst emerging pest animal problems.
“Deer are not native to Australia. They eat and destroy native trees. For primary production, they damage fences and eat crops,” she said.
They do a lot of damage to habitats recovering from bushfires. Road safety is a big one, they become a road hazard in high traffic areas.
In the 90s there was a lot of deer farming but when these operations were not feasible anymore, the deer escaped or were released. In the last two to three decades they have been spreading quite quickly and don’t look like they are stopping,” she warned.
One of the things they like is vegetable gardens and roses. They’re attracted to parks, ovals, anywhere they can graze. The problem when they get into suburbia is how to control them.”
The buck stops at Bunnings: Wild deer infiltrating suburban Australia
Earlier this month, a deer stunned shoppers at a Bunnings hardware store in Rockhampton, Central Queensland.
It crashed into a stack of trolleys, hit a glass door and ran back in the opposite direction.
Rockhampton resident Marelyn Barr said it was the closest she’s been to seeing one in the wild.
I was so surprised to look up and see a deer running through the front foyer of Bunnings,” Ms Barr said.
“I had to look at the reaction of the others to confirm I was seeing what everyone else was seeing. It must have been so frightened all by itself in unfamiliar surroundings without the rest of the herd.
“He had an amazing set of antlers.”
That same day in suburban Rockhampton, a deer was seen galloping around businesses and properties in Kawana and Norman Gardens. It’s unclear if it was the same animal.
A deer was spotted running through the streets of Fitzroy, not far from the Melbourne CBD, during the city’s June lockdown. It follows a sighting in Sydney last October when two deer roamed through streets in the inner Sydney suburbs of Leichhardt, Balmain and Annandale.