A Melbourne family has had their school holidays interrupted by a rampant deer that smashed its way into their home in the city's inner north-east.
Alphington resident Alexander Hill said he switched his phone on following a work meeting on Thursday and discovered half a dozen missed calls and a text message that read "There's a stag in the house and blood is everywhere".
A call to the neighbours confirmed a deer had made its way onto the ground floor of Mr Hill's townhouse and calls were made to police and Parks Victoria.
"He's seen his reflection in the window next to our door and then has taken that as another stag in his territory and gone at the window," Mr Hill said.
"He's gone through the window, the curtain has fallen back behind him so he's suddenly stuck in a white box."
It was then that Mr Hill got the bad news.
"It turns out not every ranger has a tranquillising dart available," Mr Hill said.
What ensued was a nervous two-hour wait for a ranger with access to tranquillisers to arrive at the house, while Mr Hill's children waited on the floor above.
He said after the initial shock, the children managed the situation "pretty well".
"The kids were saying that it smelled pretty bad, they were upstairs saying it smells terrible."
Tranquillisers were not necessary in the end, with the deer bolting into neighbouring parkland after the front door was opened.
"In a few seconds, he was off and out the front door," Mr Hill said.
"He's jumped probably 20 metres over this fence down by the river and he disappeared."
Mr Hill said rangers told him it was a strange day at the office, even for them.
"They said they're usually dealing with kangaroos, they probably only get a deer every one in 50 [calls], I think even for them it was little unusual," Mr Hill said.
"I think the size kind of caught everyone off guard as well."
Deer a longtime nuisance in Melbourne
While rare, it is not the first deer sighting in Melbourne's inner suburbs.
A young male deer turned heads in 2021 when it was seen galloping through the streets of Fitzroy in Melbourne's inner-north.
In 2017, a deer got inside a funeral home at Ringwood, in Melbourne's east, causing $100,000 damage.
There are four species of deer in Victoria: sambar, red, fallow and hog deer, with the sambar being the most populous in the state.
According to the Invasive Species Council, Victoria has possibly the largest deer population in Australia, estimated at more than a million animals.
But the Victoria government has not declared them a pest animal, with deer retaining their status as game animals under the government's Deer Control Strategy.
In the 2020-21 State Budget, the Victorian Government allocated $18.25 million over four years and $4.4 million on an ongoing basis to help manage the deer population.
The Australian Deer Association advocates for recreational hunting as part of the management of deer in the Australian landscape.
It said the incident highlighted the importance of having targeted programs for deer found in cities and urban areas.
"The deer would have been highly distressed having become, effectively, trapped," spokesman Sean Kilkenny said.
"It is important to remember that the deer is more scared of you than you are of it."
