Dogs must also be on a leash in the Brussels part of the Sonian Forest from 2023
With a leash obligation for dogs from 2023, the Brussels Region wants to boost the declining deer population in the Sonian Forest again. To compensate, there will be off-leash zones. Brussels Environment is also conducting a study to look at further reasons for the decline in deer numbers. photo traps and hormones are used.
Since 2008, the number of deer in the Sonian Forest has been monitored through a partnership between the three regions. The number of roe deer in the Brussels part of the Sonian Forest is experiencing a gradual decline, which has accelerated since 2020.
If there was still 1.1 deer per square kilometer between 2008 and 2013, it was only 0.6 between 2017 and 2020. In 2021, that number fell to 0.5 per square kilometer. According to the findings, it is not a decrease in the number of observations, but a decrease in the number of observations, Environment Minister Alain Maron (Ecolo) said on Wednesday in the Environment Committee, on a question from MP and party colleague Ingrid Parmentier. In less than ten years, there are twice as many deer in the forest.
20 to 30 attacked deer
The leading causes of death in the deer are stray dogs that attack the animals and collisions by motorists. It regularly happens that a startled deer (by a dog or something else) walks onto the highway in and around the forest and is hit there. Foresters keep track of this as far as possible, but do not always get messages. Only in the Brussels part of the forest, reports Brussels Environment, 20 to 30 deer are attacked by dogs every year.
That number is for growth in 2020, not only in the Brussels part but in the entire forest, and by extension also in other forests.
Brussels Environment has asked the non-profit organization Wildlife and Man, which monitors the population, to find out the reasons for the decline of the deer population. Scientists see several possibilities that shape the birth and death rates within the population: the recreation of a growing number of bicycles and trekking hikers, and also possibly the distraction of attacking wild boars. The wild boars are a fairly recent occurrence in the forest.
Photo traps and hormones
To investigate the reasons for the declining deer population, two research methods will be combined. On the one hand, photo traps will be set up in the places referred to. This should enable a comparison with the deer populations in other Belgian forests, such as the Meerdaalwoud of the Hoge Kempen National Park.
In addition to “non-invasive” doses of gluco-corticoids (hormones) will be taken to deer to determine the stress level within the population.
Brussels Environment is also working on a. The idea is to streamline legislation in the three regions. In the Brussels part of the Sonian Forest, the band would then also have to be maintained, “which seems essential to reduce the pressure on the deer population”, according to Maron.
Off-Lead Zones
In 2008, the three regions reached agreements that they wanted to harmonize the forest legislation in the Sonian Forest, which supports the three regions.
As is the case with mushroom picking, the rules currently differ about whether or not dogs are allowed in the forest. In Brussels, a dog owner is allowed to let his pet roam freely in the forest, “as long as he has his animal under control”, in the other regions this is not allowed. This description dates from 1995 and is difficult to position, the minister acknowledged in the same committee to a question from Member of Parliament Els Rochette (One.brussels).
Due to the current context, and at the express request of the forest guard in the forest, Brussels is now working on an equalization of the rules. It should legislate for the visitors of the forest, while at the same time reducing the pressure on fauna and flora.
To compensate, Minister Maron clearly demarcated off-leash zones for dogs in or in the vicinity of the Sonian Forest, which must be created before the general off-leash ban comes into effect. A working group by the Brussels Environment is going to work to weigh up animal welfare, the function of the forest and its social function.