Update On Oak Bay’s IC Research Project
Well – we did it! After six to eight years of a Provincial, Municipal and UWSS cost-share research project on how effective immuno-contraception would be on managing an urban deer population, our amazing science team has published a “final” report, and the verdict is in – IC is effective in reducing and maintaining the deer population – for a time.
Please see the report at https://www.oakbay.ca/community-culture/pets-wildlife/urban-deer/ (under “History / 2025”)
NEXT STEPS
Oak Bay Council and the Provincial Gov’t have the report, and we understand there has been a meeting between the District and the Province to consider “operationalizing” IC as a deer management tool. In the meantime, there is no longer a cost-share program. While the UWSS would love to see the science team continue with the project, at this point funding has been limited to animal welfare (ensuring that if there are any issues with any of the deer that have been tagged or collared our wildlife veterinarian, Dr. Adam Hering, will be able to check on them), and a small amount to allow us to continue to collect and analyze data from the 39 cameras spread across Oak Bay.
So, we are currently in a holding pattern for now. We know that the efficacy of IC is for between 3-5 years, so anecdotally we’re noting an uptick in the number of fawns we’re seeing this spring and summer. Our hope is that we will be able to build on the success of the project to date and that we will be able to administer IC to the deer population again either as a research project (there is a new vaccine that our team is using in Esquimalt that we would like to use here, it requires less vaccine boostering), or simply as an operational project.
Community information presentation
For next steps and to continue community education and engagement, look for an Oak Bay community information presentation, sponsored by the Community Association of Oak Bay (CAOB) to be held in late October, we will let you know the date closer to the time!