Several motorists avoided colliding with a deer that ran across a busy Canberra road earlier this month.

The incident happened on Ginnin-deer-a Drive, I mean Ginninderra Drive, on 8 July.

One of the motorists, Canberra resident Chris Perkovic, caught the incident on his dashcam.

The deer is seen on the grassy median strip to the right of his vehicle before it dashes across the road, narrowly missing several vehicles.

Mr Perkovic told CD he was “utterly confused” about what he was looking at because he was used to seeing other wildlife on the roads, mainly kangaroos.

“The moment I saw antlers, I was shocked that I was witnessing a deer,” he said.

“I’ve been here all my life and have never seen them ever, other than in zoos, etc.”

Mr Perkovic said it made him think that there might be “a little farm somewhere”.

“When I found out they are wild and more common these days… My mind was blown,” he said.

“That’s where my reaction [the what the f*** exclamation heard in the video] came from.

“The thought of, ‘Am I hallucinating?’”

“I never expected my post would engage so many… I never even expected politics… It was just a random, funny event. People made puns and dad jokes.”

The ACT Government website said feral deer were becoming a bigger problem in the nation’s capital, with growing populations of fallow, red and sambar deer.

“Feral deer populations and the areas they live in have grown in recent years,” the website said.

The website said feral deer cause many issues, including eating endangered plants, adding grazing pressure, affecting water quality, damaging young trees with their antlers, damaging gardens and posing a hazard on roads.

The ACT Government conducts thermal aerial controls to prevent damage by deer, among other feral animals, and ground shooting to manage rabbit and deer populations in the ACT.

Invasive Species Council chief executive officer Jack Gough said while the ACT Government has been proactive in managing feral deer, the pressure of the growing population meant that the deer were increasingly getting into urban areas.

“This is the consequence of two decades of inaction and mismanagement by the NSW Government, driven by the power of the shooting lobby,” Mr Gough said.

“Feral deer are trashing, trampling and polluting our forests and rivers and are an increasing threat to motorists and agriculture.

“We need ongoing, scaled-up, professional control efforts to protect Canberra and our other capital cities.

“The mismanagement in NSW means this is going to be a forever problem now in Canberra and will need ongoing, annual control programs.

“Unfortunately, even if the numbers get down to zero, they will keep crossing the border because NSW is doing such a poor job of managing feral deer.”

CD reached out to Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water Minister Suzanne Orr and ACT Parks, receiving a response from an ACT Government spokesperson.

“There are growing populations of fallow, red and sambar deer across many parts of Australia, including the ACT,” the spokesperson said.

“Feral deer can inhabit a wide range of environments; in the ACT, this can include peri-urban and occasionally urban reserves.

“The Thermal Assisted Aerial Control program has been successful at managing the populations in areas where this method has been applied consistently over several years.

“Feral deer, which have commonly been found in more remote locations, have been coming closer into urban areas in recent years.”

The ACT Government said the 2025 aerial program removed 849 feral animals, including 527 deer. But the spokesman said the exact population of feral deer in the ACT was not tracked.

CD also reached out to the NSW Department of Primary Industries/Local Land Services (LLS) to respond to the Invasive Species Council’s comments.

A NSW Government spokesperson said it supported landholders in managing pest animals on their properties, including feral deer, by providing best practice management advice and coordinating wide-scale pest control programs.

The spokesperson said LLS coordinated control operations have removed almost 34,000 feral deer in NSW over the past four years, including more than 15,000 deer removed from July 2024 to June 2025. 

South East LLS recently culled 2,202 fallow and sambar deer across seven days.

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