The extermination has begun. The sika deer threatens the Danish red deer, it was said: Now a new report sweeps the main argument off the table.

Time is running out as a new report lands on the desk of Minister for Nature and Animal Welfare Christian Rabjerg Madsen (S).

The report concerns the sika deer, which has become the subject of a heated nature policy debate since the EU last year declared it an invasive species that must be eradicated.

Although his predecessor in the post – the then minister for the green tripartite, Jeppe Bruus (S) – managed to apply the rhetorical handbrake with the announcement (https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/politik/minister-vil-ikke-aktivt-bekaempe-uoenskede-sikahjorte) that sika deer in Danish nature would not be "actively combated," as the law currently stands, a death sentence hangs over the heads of the approximately 2,100 individuals in Denmark.

In Jægersborg Deer Park north of Copenhagen, where the Danish Nature Agency is responsible for the deer, half of the population has already been shot. The last will be shot within a few weeks, and elsewhere the plan is to shoot the males this autumn so that no new sika calves can be born.

But in the wake of the latest political statement, private forest owners and deer parks have so far held back.

The largest free-ranging population of sika deer is found in eastern Jutland, north of Aarhus, but across most of the country they are found both in the wild and in deer parks. However, not all places also have red deer. (Photo: © Thomas Traasdahl, Ritzau Scanpix)

For just over half a year, two veterinarians and a genetics researcher, with help from the Danish Forest Association, have been investigating whether the main argument behind the decision to eradicate sika deer in Denmark holds up.

Whether the deer species, which originally comes from East Asia, is interbreeding with Danish red deer and risks creating what the Agency for Green Land Conversion and Water Environment calls a 'hybrid population' (https://sgav.dk/alle-nyheder/nyheder/2025/dec/farvel-til-sikahjort-i-danmark).

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'It doesn't happen'

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The conclusion is clear.

"It doesn't happen," states senior researcher at the University of Copenhagen Niels Tommerup.

He has researched genetics for more than 30 years, and in a so-called chromosome analysis he has compared DNA samples from red deer and sika deer across the country to find out whether the two species are interbreeding.

For good measure, he adds:

"If it does happen, it is very rare."

>

> With this study, we must say that crossbreeding between red deer

> and sika deer is not a problem in Denmark.

> Astrid Ingstrup, veterinarian

The study, using blood samples from 56 sika deer and 22 red deer, is among the most comprehensive of its kind worldwide, and according to the researcher, it provides a credible picture of the Danish sika population's genetics as well as a solid insight into the genes of Danish red deer.

It was veterinarian Astrid Ingstrup who took the initiative for the project and, together with her colleague Flemming Thune-Stephensen, collected the samples with help from around 100 volunteer hunters, forest owners, and deer park staff.

"With this study, we must say that crossbreeding between red deer and sika deer is not a problem in Denmark," she concludes.

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A precautionary principle

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The sika deer was brought to Denmark at the beginning of the 20th century and released so that it could be hunted, like the fallow deer and the pheasant, for example.

Since then, in several areas of the country, it has lived side by side with red deer, without hunters or wildlife managers observing any hybrids.

In both Ireland and Scotland, however, the two deer species have been seen interbreeding, and the sika deer's genes have essentially diluted the native red deer population.

That is reason enough to be concerned in Denmark and to say goodbye to the sika deer based on what senior advisor at Aarhus University Morten Elmeros calls a precautionary principle.

"It is an irreversible process," he points out.

Morten Elmeros is among the experts who have advised the Agency for Green Land Conversion and Water Environment on the sika deer, based on studies from Scotland and Ireland, among others, and the new Danish analysis does not change his mind.

"When we still have a pure red deer population, that gives even more reason to remove the problem, because then there is no longer any risk," says Morten Elmeros.

>

> When we can see in our study that there is nothing to suggest that

> hybridisation is happening, then it is foolish to take very drastic

> action.

> Anders Frandsen, director of the Danish Forest Association

Astrid Ingstrup, however, points to a significant difference between the deer in Ireland and Scotland and those living in Denmark: size.

"It is different here because the Danish sika are small and have difficulty mating with red deer, because the red deer is so large in Denmark," she explains.

Conversely, a small female sika cannot bear the weight of a male red deer trying to mate with her, Astrid Ingstrup points out.

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'Foolish' to take drastic action

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Now Astrid Ingstrup hopes that the minister, based on the report with the chromosome analysis, will reconsider the decision to eradicate the sika deer in Denmark.

"It is completely unacceptable to decide to eradicate a species that does no harm and for which there is no factual basis to shoot them," she says.

She acknowledges that native species should be protected, but calls the sika deer part of the history of Danish nature.

"They make up 0.4 percent of the total deer population. You can't come and say that they compete with the others for food. That's simply not true," says Astrid Ingstrup.

She is not alone.

The Danish Forest Association, which paid for the laboratory analysis of the blood samples collected by volunteers and unpaid hands, also believes that Christian Rabjerg Madsen must look at the matter again.

"When we can see in our study – which is quite thorough and has a fairly extensive material – that there is nothing to suggest that hybridisation is happening, then it is foolish to take very drastic action, such as shooting all sika game," says director Anders Frandsen.

One could start by keeping a watchful eye on whether the Danish deer might begin to interbreed, he suggests.

"But it doesn't seem to have happened, and then perhaps the situation can be handled with more gentle measures," says Anders Frandsen.

The EU decision to add the sika deer to the list of undesirable invasive species and the basis for it have also sparked debate in other member states, and Austria (https://www.euractiv.com/news/austria-pushes-to-keep-farming-invasive-deer/), for example, is working to be exempted from the ban.

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