Canada Implementing Bait Deer Program

Although it’s viewed as unsportsmanlike for hunters to bait their prey, conservation officers in Canada are using the technique to combat the issue of poaching Nanaimo’s urban deer.

Poaching is illegal, cruel, and is of course, extremely dangerous to the public, as poachers roam wooded areas, and public parks shooting cross bolts, and arrows at the animals.

The Bait Deer program is similar in many ways to the police Bait Car program that catches car thieves, and is proving to be an efficient disincentive to poachers killing deer in the area. Instead of hiding cameras to determine the identity of the poachers, the deer are captured by conservation officers, tranquilized, and implanted with a GPS tracking device.

The deer wear GPS tracking collars, and can be pinpointed wherever they are been taken to. This is highly effective as if a deer is poached, conservation officers can prove where the deer has come from.

Another positive aspect of these GPS collars is that they allow biologists on the program track the movements of the animals, thus discovering more about their territories. At the moment, conservation officers aren’t releasing information on the number of deer that have been tagged, although enough have been to allow them to understand previously undiscovered information about the ranges of the animals.

The program is beneficial all around to both conservation officers and biologists, and it’s been a surprise to find out just how small the range of movement of the deer is. In fact, the majority of these GPS tracked animals have travelled no more than half a kilometer.

These small travelling ranges are particularly helpful when it comes to tracing poached deer through their DNA. If a poacher claims a deer has been taken from a different location, investigators will know by the animal’s DNA that the person in question is being untruthful.

Before the program, the Conservation Officer service would receive as many as 30 annual reports of poaching from the Hammond Bay and Departure Bay areas, however last year, 2015, there were no calls from the public.

This year, there have been only two incidents of suspected poaching, in Nanoose, and in Nanaimo.

Officers are working hard to raise awareness of the program in order to deter poachers, as well as to maintain public safety.

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