The annual deer hunting season has opened with thousands of licensed hunters entitled to shoot male animals in areas for which they have permits.
The season opened at 5.30am and hunters are allowed to stalk and shoot sika, fallow and muntjac deer species throughout the State.
Male red deer can also be hunted, except within Co Kerry.
Hunting for male deer is permitted until the end of the year and hunting of female deer opens on 1 November and continues until the the end of February.
Last year over 6,237 individual hunters were licensed to hunt deer and so far this year 5,136 licences have been issued.
Deer hunting licences are valid from 1 August until 31 July next year and anyone obtaining one must have completed a certified deer hunting course, hold a licensed high-powered firearm and have permission to hunt land parcels at least 100 acres in size.
The hunting season opens as the Deer Management Strategy Group, established by the Government, is expected to issue its final report by the end of the month.
As part of its consideration on how to manage the deer population, it published a consultation that found a large majority of respondents agreed a cull is important and that wild deer are affecting biodiversity, land management and road safety.
Damien Hannigan from the Irish Deer Commission, a voluntary association that promotes best practice in deer management and conservation, said deer stalkers have an important role to play in controlling the population.
"Deer stalking is herd management through selective culling of deer based on age, sex, carrying capacity of the respective habitat, land use objectives and landowner tolerance.
"The management of any wildlife species is understandably an emotive topic and no more so than our largest land mammal and iconic wild deer.
"In the absence of a natural predator, it falls on man to manage deer numbers at sustainable levels and maintain a balance between land use and deer."
He added: "The most recent data provided to the Irish Deer Commission by the NPWS shows 6500 licensed deer hunters culled over 55,000 deer in 2020, while an unknown number of the animals are also killed on roads and in poaching incidents."
