The 'cute deer' in the hills is now a pest — and can be shot

A spotted deer found near Bonghwasan in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province. [Reader-provided]

"I never thought of it as a harmful animal."

Park, a 34-year-old resident of Suncheon in South Jeolla Province, was out for a walk near Bonghwasan recently when a wild spotted deer stepped into view. Delighted by the rare sighting, he snapped some photos and shared them with friends — only to learn from one of them that spotted deer had just been designated a "harmful wild animal."

"Seeing deer roaming the neighborhood was almost a point of local pride," Park said. "So hearing they'd suddenly been labeled harmful animals came as a bit of a shock." He added that he was not sure culling was the only answer. "They say the population is controlled by capturing or shooting them, but I don't know if that's really the only way."

A herd of spotted deer roams the Jeju horse pasture in Yonggang-dong, Jeju. [Yonhap]

The spotted deer is widely regarded as one of Korea's most appealing animals. Most people assume they belong only in zoos, but in fact the animals are scattered across wild areas throughout the country.

They are not, however, a long-established wild population on the Korean Peninsula. Since the 1950s, deer were imported for antler production and ornamental purposes, and animals left behind when those operations shut down gradually established themselves in the wild.

The problem is that as the spotted deer population has steadily grown, the animals have been devouring crops and forest undergrowth, causing ongoing harm to nearby residents.

A spotted deer found near Bonghwasan in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province. [Reader-provided]

The designation of spotted deer as a "harmful wild animal" this year is aimed at addressing exactly these problems — specifically, rapidly reducing the population in affected areas.

But opposition to culling the deer is considerable. Critics argue that because the animals ended up in the wild through human negligence in the first place, alternatives to direct population control should be explored.

The Ministry of Climate, Environment and Energy amended the enforcement rules of the Wildlife Protection and Management Act last December, adding spotted deer to the list of harmful wild animals — meaning they can now be captured or shot with a permit.

An introduced spotted deer. [National Institute of Ecology]

The case that triggered the designation is Anmado Island in Yeonggwang-gun, South Jeolla Province. A 2024 survey by the National Institute of Ecology found roughly 1,000 spotted deer living on the island — a population that ballooned more than 90-fold in 40 years from just 10 deer a villager brought in for antler production in 1985 and then abandoned.

With no natural predators, the deer multiplied rapidly and began causing widespread crop damage. They stripped fields of sweet potatoes, garlic and barley, and also consumed grass, new shoots and tree bark. The government says the animals have also caused native plants to die off and destroyed local vegetation.

A herd of spotted deer roams a snow-covered horse pasture on Hallasan, Jeju. [Yonhap]

The Ministry of Environment — now the Ministry of Climate, Environment and Energy — said in a related policy announcement last year that the deer "are negatively affecting the native ecosystem through competition for food and habitat with indigenous wild animals such as water deer, goral and roe deer." On Anmado alone, the ministry confirmed, the animals had caused about 160 million won ($108,000) in crop damage over the past five years, on top of destroying the island's plant ecosystem.

As recently as the 1990s, deer farming was widespread across Korea. By the mid-1990s, an estimated 8,000 farms nationwide were raising some 170,000 deer. Rising feed costs and competition from cheap imported antler velvet eventually made the business unviable for many operators, and deer that were subsequently abandoned escaped their enclosures or were released, establishing themselves in surrounding areas.

Spotted deer on Anmado Island in Yeonggwang-gun, South Jeolla Province, which have caused ecosystem destruction and crop damage. [Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission]

The problem extends well beyond Anmado. Local government damage reports published by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission in 2025 identified separate deer populations across the country: about 600 on Dangsa Island off Wando, about 230 on Sorokdo in Goheung, about 250 on Jeju Island, about 70 in the Bonghwasan area of Suncheon, and about 30 on Udo Island near Changwon.

Spotted deer had previously been classified as livestock, which made it difficult to capture them even when they caused crop damage, and wildlife management law provided no clear legal basis for dealing with them. In 2023, residents of Anmado filed a collective petition with the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, a process that ultimately led to the harmful wild animal designation.

Culling operations are already underway this year. Yeonggwang-gun assembled a mobile control unit of 24 hunters early this year to operate across five islands — Anmado, Daeseokman Island, Soseokman Island, Odo and Hoengdo — with a plan to capture more than 100 deer across two seasons: January through April and October through December.

Captured animals are reportedly processed through "rendering" — crushed and sterilized under high heat and pressure, then separated into oil and solids — to be used as compost or feed ingredients.

The backlash has been significant. When the Jeju Provincial Council passed an ordinance in December 2025 reflecting the harmful wild animal designation, animal rights groups criticized the move, arguing that the designation could lead directly to capture and culling without sufficient ecological, damage, social or economic data to justify it.

A herd of spotted deer runs across a snow-covered horse pasture on Hallasan, Jeju. [Yonhap]

The central objection from critics is that alternatives to lethal control must be found. Particularly prominent is the argument that culling animals that went feral because of poor human management is wrong. The pattern, critics say, has been consistent: the deer were "livestock" when profitable, "wild animals" after being abandoned, and "harmful animals" once they became inconvenient — only the label changes.

An official from the Korea Animal Liberation Wave criticized the approach. "Our society tries to manage these animals by branding them 'harmful' and resorting to capture and killing," the official said. "Capture and slaughter is not a fundamental solution — it is closer to a convenient disposal." The official added that other countries have addressed similar problems through non-lethal means.

A wild boar captured in central Seoul. [Gangdong-gu Office]

In parts of Britain, electric fencing and plant-based repellents are used to block deer from reaching crops. In New York state, a sterilization program ran in the 1990s to reduce the density of white-tailed deer populations.

Meanwhile, conflicts between human and wildlife interests are expected to recur. The boundary of wild habitat is gradually expanding — a result of urbanization, forest development and climate change acting together.

A study published last year by Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology analyzed the distribution of six large mammal species — including spotted deer, wild boar, Japanese macaques and bears — over roughly 40 years since 1978. It found that the ranges of all six species had expanded from mountainous areas into lowlands with more farmland and developed land.

"Conflicts that threaten people's property and safety are increasing," the researchers said. "Accelerating population decline and climate warming are predicted to further expand the habitats of these species, underscoring the need to develop measures to reduce conflict and coexist with them."

woo@heraldcorp.com