Axis Deer Run Amok on Maui
In 1959, by order of the Legislature, a herd of five axis deer was brought to the island of Maui and introduced above Kihei. In 1960, four more deer were released near Kula.
With no natural predators in Hawai`i, the deer, native to India, have multiplied many times over. Forty years later, the Maui population is thought to number about 4,000. According to biologist Steven B. Anderson, who is studying the Maui deer as part of a doctoral dissertation project, the number could easily explode to 10,000 within five years.
Axis deer (Axis axis) are relatively small as deer go. Unlike many species, they retain their spots for life. Bucks stand about three and a half feet at shoulder height and weigh from 160 to 200 pounds. Females are smaller, with weights between 90 and 120 pounds.
At the time the deer were introduced to Maui, writes P. Quentin Tomich in his authoritative Mammals in Hawai`i, the state justified the move “on the basis of management assurances that the deer would not penetrate native forests, fed largely on introduced plants, were free of dangerous parasites and disease, and that their populations would be controlled by hunting.”
For most of the first three decades the deer were on Maui, they behaved pretty well in accordance with those “management assurances.” In the mid-1990s, though, they began expanding their range into more sensitive areas. Frequent sightings were made in Haleakala National Park. In February 1995, deer droppings were spotted in the Waikamoi Preserve of the Nature Conservancy of Hawai`i, in East Maui. Deer tracks have been seen inside Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge, near Ma`alaea, and the state’s Kanaha Pond Wildlife Sanctuary, in Kahului.
In the last half of the 1990s, the range of the deer has expanded further. Last May, sightings were reported near Waikapu and a deer was hit by a car in West Maui, near Ka`anapali. Maui’s newest park, Keopuolani, has a resident deer herd, made up of animals escaped from the old petting zoo.
The expanding range of axis deer across the island has natural resource managers as well as Maui farmers worried. The deer are voracious feeders. Few plants are spared their browsing. In addition, the bucks’ rubbing of antlers on trees can cause bark damage to trees and shrubs, including orchard stock.
Most fencing is unable to keep deer out of areas where they are unwelcome. In 1997, the Maui Axis Deer Group (MADG) was formed by representatives of groups that share an interest in seeing the deer’s range limited. They include The Nature Conservancy of Hawai`i, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Haleakala National Park, Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Ulupalakua Ranch, Haleakala Ranch, Kaupo Ranch, the Maui County branch of the Hawai`i Farm Bureau, and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife.
Soon after the group was formed, Anderson arrived in Maui to begin his study of the problem, with financial support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state, and the Nature Conservancy of Hawai`i. Additional support has been provided by Ulupalakua Ranch.
Maximizing Bucks
Anderson told Environment Hawai`i, the axis deer are “a very challenging pest to deal with. They learn quickly, and when pressured — hunted — they become fully nocturnal and hide in the thickest possible cover during daylight hours.” Anderson is encouraged by the fact that, as he puts it, “everyone is sitting at the table, which is the most important thing we could have going for us.”
The worst threat to that process, he says, is “for people to get impatient and aggressive regarding the situation… Certain people are just waiting for ‘conservationists’ to start bullying their way around, so that they can walk away from the process and have as many deer as they want on their lands.”
As Anderson’s remarks suggest, some of the parties “at the table” have conflicted positions with respect to the deer. Ulupalakua Ranch, for example, conducts guided commercial hunts, with hunters paying premiums for each buck shot. The ranch is thus interested in keeping down the number of does and maximizing the buck population. Elsewhere in the U.S., on private deer preserves, hunters may pay up to $1,600 for a trophy buck. According to Bill Evanson of the DLNR’s Natural Area Reserve System program on Maui, charges for trophy deer on Maui are comparable.
While the state sees its own natural resources nibbled away, it, too, has been reluctant to wage battle against the deer. Evanson says the state has done little hunting of deer — owing mostly to the fact that the deer are more numerous on private lands than on lands owned by the state. Evanson says he has seen deer and deer signs (rubbing is the distinctive signature of deer) on lands within the `Ahihi-Kina`u Natural Area Reserve and close to the Kanaio NAR.
So far as damage to natural resources are concerned, the most serious problems with deer, though, are found in East Maui, including Haleakala National Park, the Nature Conservancy of Hawai`i’s Waikamoi Preserve, and on around to Hana.
In an effort to keep deer numbers down, the state has removed bag limits for deer. But the effectiveness of this approach is questionable, since the deer, as Anderson notes, make themselves scarce after being hunted in an area.
In addition, hunters — especially those on guided tours — like to take bucks rather than does. This bodes ill for controlling the population, Anderson says. “A serious situation is brewing” with respect to the does, he says. Ulupalakua Ranch is trying to keep doe numbers down by encouraging hunters to take them in the fall months, when most does will be pregnant.
Eradication is difficult (although the O`ahu axis deer population was eradicated, largely as a result of urbanization of favored habitat). However, Anderson does see some prospects for keeping the deer population under control and out of areas where it can do the most harm. “In the native forest,” he says, “there’s the potential for some clever work with fencing.” Troughs or moats could be used around fences, making them more difficult for deer to cross. Also, Anderson says, deer won’t pass through opaque curtains. If fencing could be made opaque somehow, deer probably would not cross it.
Hunting with dogs and snaring are other possible approaches Anderson cites, although often these are met with loud public opposition. Some knowledgeable sources discount the effectiveness of snaring. Snaring a deer is far more difficult than snaring a pig, they note, since deer do not root along the ground, as pigs do. They also pointed out the difficulty of hunting deer, which are most active during nighttime hours. Nighttime hunting from helicopters using special infrared goggles would almost certainly be required to make a meaningful dent in the population. But this is not only expensive, it can be dangerous as well.
Regardless of the challenges, Evanson believes the state should do more. “We need someone to work full-time on this,” he told Environment Hawai`i. “It’s a huge problem.”
— Patricia Tummons
Volume 10, Number 5 November 1999
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