LOOKING BACK Ken Slee
A look back at past ADA activities and successes.
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The Bunyip Sambar Project was initiated on the recommendation of game biologist Max Downes who had been employed by the Australian Deer Association in 1978 to implement a research project into Australia’s then dominant deer species, the sambar, under the title The Sambar Consultancy.
Max was very aware that sambar were just about impossible to observe and study in the wild. A penned population in a bush setting would, however, give an observer a chance of investigating this very elusive species under near-wild conditions. With this in mind he recommended that the ADA set up a study enclosure in a suitable location and manipulate the environment to determine the factors that favoured sambar productivity.
The first requirement, a “suitable location”, had to be easily accessible, comprise a mix of representative bush and fringing pasture and come with a caretaker who was committed to overseeing the security and welfare of the deer and to spending time observing and recording how the deer used and responded to their environment.
Although a couple of options were investigated, ADA Life Member Mike Harrison and his wife Elaine had the ideal location behind their farm at Tonimbuk, just to the north of the small town of Bunyip in West Gippsland – a block of crown land that they held under a grazing licence. The area was state forest that was later to be included in the Bunyip State Park. It consisted of dry forested slopes running down to paperbark swamp.
The Tonimbuk area had been an early stronghold for sambar, being near the head of the Koo Wee Rup Swamp where sambar had first been liberated in the mid-1860s. A scattered population of deer persisted in the area, but numbers were very low compared with recent decades. Mike had been the most enthusiastic advocate for the project so it was fortuitous that he had the ideal location to carry it forward if permission to use the site could be obtained from the relevant government authorities.
In late 1985 ADA applied to the Victorian Department of Conservation Forests and Lands to erect an enclosure. In 1986 this permission was obtained and the Bunyip Sambar Project commenced with its aim being “supplying a facility where a small captive group of sambar can be held in near-natural conditions and studied to provide properly documented basic research material on which an extended management program for wild deer can be based.”
ADA’s Victorian branches undertook to provide the labour and funding to initiate the program with Peter Purvis being project coordinator and Mike Harrison caretaker.
During 1986 materials for a high fence were purchased and an enclosure of 6.2 hectares was built by ADA volunteers. This enclosure was enlarged to 14 hectares in 1992 to take in more forested country as well as an area of pasture on the Harrison’s farm.
The Bunyip Sambar Project was officially opened in November 1986 by Arthur Bentley and ADA junior member Graham Edebohls when two deer, a hind and a spikey were released into the enclosure. These animals were donated to the project from the Victorian Government’s Serendip Wildlife Research Station at Lara near Geelong. Two further hinds and a mature stag were obtained from Melbourne Zoo’s Werribee Wildlife Park in mid-1987 to see the project properly underway!
By 1987, the deer had settled into their enclosure and were exhibiting typical wild and elusive sambar behaviour along with an established pecking order and the first of many calves had been born.
Over the next 24 years, until the Bunyip Sambar Project was officially ended, an enormous effort went into extending and maintaining the enclosure, building observation towers, establishing a reference grid and feeding the deer when necessary. Meanwhile, Mike took the lead in studying and managing the deer while educating hunters, school groups, the wider public and government officials about sambar and how they could best be managed as a valuable resource. However, the original concept of manipulating the habitat inside the enclosure to investigate the responses of the deer never occurred as permission could not be obtained from the authorities who controlled this area of public land.
Eventually, in 2010, the Bunyip Sambar Project had to be wound up with the final twelve sambar, a mix of stags, hinds and calves, being re-homed and the fences and other structures removed.
Undoubtedly, the major outcome from the Bunyip Sambar Project was the publication in 2010 of the book Sambar The Magnificent Deer by Mike Harrison. Mike’s book was based on his daily observations over those 24 years, and is first and foremost a book about sambar, their relationship with the Australian environment, their life cycle, habits and behavioural patterns. This book has a lot to offer the thinking hunter, biologist and student of biology as much of what it contains is new and closely observed information.
Besides Mike’s book, numerous other positives came from the project. They include, along with lots of other intangibles:
- Ian Moore’s study for a master’s degree, completed 1993, entitled Habitat Use and Activity Patterns of Sambar (Cervus unicolor) in the Bunyip Sambar Enclosure.
- Errol Mason took the opportunity on many occasions to photograph and study the deer in the enclosure and the information and photos he obtained contributed significantly to the series of magazines and books that he subsequently published under the title Secrets of the Sambar.
- A great many ADA members gained the satisfaction of being involved in a deer management project that gave them the opportunity to network with other hunters and learn more about Australia’s pre-eminent and most valued game animal.
- The enclosure was visited on numerous occasions by school groups, community groups and even by members of other hunting organisations, all keen to see the deer and learn more about them and the study that was underway.
- On a number of occasions members of the Land Conservation Council, Parks Victoria and Conservation Forests and Land visited to view what was being done and to discuss issues such as access to public land for hunting and sambar and hunter management.
- As the Bunyip Enclosure licence specified that no more than twelve deer be held in the pen, excess animals had to be occasionally culled, with most of those removed being used to demonstrate trophy caping and venison recovery at ADA hunter education courses.
- Ongoing recognition of the ADA and its efforts to promote and protect the future of sambar hunting and the species’ management.
Throughout the 24 years of the Bunyip Sambar Project, the drive, commitment and sacrifice of ADA Life Member Mike Harrison was a key to its success. A very accomplished sambar hunter, Mike lived by the ADA truism that “There’s more to deer than hunting”.
While Mike Harrison was the public face of the Bunyip Sambar Project, the unsung hero was undoubtedly the long suffering but eternally supportive and rarely complaining Elaine Harrison. As well as looking after the welfare of the enclosed deer on occasions when this was needed, Elaine was always ready with a cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit or cake around the kitchen table when workers or wives turned up on deer-related business or visitors arrived to discuss the latest sambar-related politics. She was also inevitably caught up in the Bunyip Sambar Project herself with one interaction with the penned sambar moving her to record a frightening event in the October 1987 edition of Australian Deer. This event highlights an aspect of sambar behaviour that an armed hunter may never experience.
In Defence of Our Young
The Bunyip Sambar Project is situated on our property and most of the responsibility for looking after the deer and recording the happenings inside the pen fall to my husband for obvious reasons. He spends more time inside the pen with the deer than doing the jobs that need doing around the house and on the farm. The original hind, which came from Serendip Wildlife Research Station, was supposedly not in calf when she arrived at Tonimbuk, but Mike had watched her closely and believed that she was pregnant. Early in April, he became quite excited as all the signs indicated that he had been right and she was not far off calving. But they say that a watched kettle never boils. Mike became impatient and decided that just one day up the bush would be all right. I was given the job of feeding the deer and checking on the hind while he was away.
It was Saturday, April 18, and I was minding my grandson Jacob, so I took him with me when I went to feed and check the deer about three o’clock in the afternoon. It was warm and sunny and quite pleasant among the trees in the pen. I saw the young stag and spread some hay near him. He showed no hesitation and came up to feed. Jacob and I watched him for a short time and then went in search of the hind.
I found her and we walked forward while I spoke to her in what I hoped was a reassuring manner. She stood with tail erect as I approached her but made no other move. It was then that I saw the calf! It was standing on wobbly legs with its big ears turned towards me and looking absolutely beautiful. I stopped immediately at about 10 metres from the hind and spread some hay while I kept a close watch on her. She made some signal which I neither saw nor heard and the calf just melted into the ground. Then she bristled up and extended her head low and flat, for all the world like snake, and approached me quickly. I snatched Jacob up from the ground and backed off slowly, but she came faster. I looked around wildly for the safety of a tree but there were none close handy so I stopped moving and just stood still.
The hind kept coming until we were only steps apart. Then she stopped and commenced a very aggressive display. She stomped continually with her forefeet, rolled her eyes and dribbled saliva from her jaws. All the time, her bristles were extended and she was a ferocious sight. Occasionally she would turn sideways and then swing back to face me again. My heart was beating heavily and I clung to Jacob because I knew I was his only protection if she decided to attack with those slashing front hooves. He kept asking what was the matter and I told him that the deer was cross with us and we would have to keep still. A fly began to worry him and I had to tell him not to wave his hands at it. The stand-off lasted for at least a quarter of an hour when, suddenly, she put her bristles down and walked over to the hay and commenced to feed.
With racing heart and trembling knees, I left. The sooner I removed Jacob from the presence of that over-protective new mother, the better I would be pleased. Under normal circumstances, sambar hinds are beautiful creatures but I am prepared to swear that there is nothing in our bush that looks as fierce or as ugly as a hind protecting her young. There has been another calf born in the pen since that day but I am content to wait until they are a bit older before I go for another visit.
by Elaine Harrison
EDITOR’S NOTE
Among all of the doom and gloom about the future of firearms ownership, hunting and game management in Australia there have been quite a few successes – successes that all too often go unrecognised by the great majority of hunters. These successes were invariably due the hard work of largely unsung heroes donating their time in organisations like the Australian Deer Association, Field & Game Australia and the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia.
By knowing the history of where we have come from and of past successes, we can take heart that we are not without a voice in the hunting and deer debate and are able to influence our futures.
This article, and others in the series, describe some of the good work that has been done in the past by ADA, those that have taken a major role in this and how these successes continue to deliver to the present time. Hopefully, these stories will also encourage younger hunters to join one of the major hunting organisations (naturally we suggest that that is the Australian Deer Association) and to step up and ‘give it a go’ to influence our collective futures.