Plenty. Apparently.

Cr Rob Turner said the magnitude of the problem is enormous.

He was speaking at the December meeting of Port Macquarie-Hastings Council.

The issue was raised by Cr Mike Cusato who said the prevalence of deer farms over a number of years had escalated the local feral population.

"It is an ongoing problem," he said. "They are beautiful little things but we have thousands and thousands of them.

"Council cannot afford to, firstly eradicate them due to legislation, and does not have the resources and required guidance on how to move forward on how to control these pests," he said.

"Deer are a game species and not a threatened species.

"This notion of motions raised this issue with relevant state government people that we need to move forward on this."

Cr Turner said he went through the (tabled) report and said it was quite scary.

"The population figures east of the highway total some 2000 to 5000 and the same west of the highway," he said.

"To ensures numbers stay constant we would need to cull some 2500 deer per year.

"This problem is really beyond comprehension with what we are currently doing."

Cr Turner said the feral deer population threatens biodiversity, koala food trees and koala habitat, market gardens and household gardens.

"Cr Cusato did a great thing by bringing this to our attention," he added.

Cr Lisa Intemann said the feral deer population was a major problem for the state government.

"And another example of cost shifting (to councils)," she added.

Along with writing to relevant state government politicians requesting appropriate funding for investigations into feral deer populations, and the ongoing culling programs, councillors have requested the general manager to provide a briefing to councillors in the first quarter of calendar year 2018, and outlining the ongoing culling programs required to gain control over the deer population.

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