On the Big Island, where a proposal to introduce axis deer in the 1970s ground to a halt after environmentalists raised hell, rumors abound now that axis deer have arrived anyway and that a reproducing population of them exists in the large district of Ka`u. One rancher has reported seeing a doe with at least one fawn near Na`alehu.<\/p>\n
Steve Hess, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey\u2019s Biological Resources Discipline, has studied mouflon in the area. He calls the reports of axis deer \u201cpretty reliable\u201d and states that natural resource management agencies at the state and federal levels are \u201cgearing up to do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jan Schipper, head of the Big Island Invasive Species Committee, emphasized that the reports weren\u2019t confirmed. \u201cWe often get reports of axis deer, but most of them turn out to be mouflon that have lost their horns or have mange,\u201d he said. Still, he added, \u201cthere are rumors that the deer have been here a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the actions that Hess and others have taken or planned to take are stationing cameras in remote areas that are triggered by passing animals, in the hope of obtaining hard evidence of deer, and meeting with area landowners to develop strategies for dealing with the deer, whose presence can be devastating to ranchers and farmers.<\/p>\n
Also, the source of the deer, assuming they are present, cannot be easily determined. Axis deer on Moloka`i may be infected with bovine tuberculosis (BTB), raising the prospect that cattle on the Big Island could be at risk if the deer in Ka`u were brought from Moloka`i. As a condition of maintaining its BTB-free status, and thus be able to ship livestock interstate without conditions, the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires, among other things, that the state restrict the movement of feral pigs and axis deer from the east end of the island.<\/p>\n
But in fact, there are no restrictions, in the regulations of either the state Department of Agriculture or Department of Land and Natural Resources, on the inter-island transport of game. Nothing in state law (Chapter 197, Hawai`i Revised Statutes) seems to address specifically the deliberate introduction of game animals to an island by private parties.<\/p>\n
Marjorie Ziegler, executive director of the Conservation Council for Hawai`i, is alarmed at the rumors. If there\u2019s any chance they\u2019re true, she said, \u201cthe state should put together a SWAT team and take them out. Put a bounty on them, hire sharpshooters to take them out \u2013 do anything we can to eradicate them.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Hawai`i, Steven B. Anderson studied axis deer (Axis axis axis<\/i>) for several years on Maui, documenting their harmful effects on native ecosystems and agricultural enterprises. In a report he prepared in 1999 \u2013 \u201cAxis Deer Overview and Profile\u201d \u2013 Anderson quoted the noted territorial botanist Harold Lyon, who, commenting on a proposed release of axis deer at Pohakuloa, on the Big Island, warned: \u201cThey will range in the cane fields as well as in the forest \u2026 The deer can graze down the forage grasses and other plants much closer to the ground than can the cattle, so in all overstocked pasture the deer can thrive while the cattle starve.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring my study,\u201d Anderson wrote, \u201cI have witnessed [both] warnings come true.\u201d On Maui, deer are frequently found in the cane fields of HC&S, he reported. \u201cUnfortunately, I have also witnessed cattle in very poor condition (nutritionally) co-existing with deer that had continued to thrive under extreme drought conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderson went on to list the \u201cprincipal elements of axis deer biology that cause it to be problematic here in Hawai`i:\u201d the lack of natural predators; the deer\u2019s \u201cextreme elusivity (hiding) and nocturnal activity;\u201d and its \u201cbehavioral variability, adaptability and opportunism.\u201d He added: \u201cThis species has also evolved in the face of environmental extremes in Asia that it will never encounter here in Hawai`i. It is adapted to a much wider temperature range, a much greater breadth of precipitation extremes, a much broader range of common plant species, and much more stealthy predators (tigers) than hunters generally are.\u201d<\/p>\n
BIISC\u2019s Schipper told Environment Hawai`i<\/i> that if the deer are on the island, they arrived without any formal permission or notice. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a lot of control over what comes onto the island,\u201d he said. Even with species that are listed as noxious or invasive, there\u2019s a problem controlling their transport, he said. \u201cFire ants, for example, show up everywhere, and we can\u2019t track them. We can\u2019t open containers or monitor the transport of vectors.\u201d In the case of axis deer, they don\u2019t even appear on any state list as a noxious species whose inter-island transport might be prohibited.<\/p>\n
If axis deer are discovered on private property, said Hess, there\u2019s nothing the state could do to eradicate them without the owner\u2019s permission. Perhaps, if they move onto adjoining land with more cooperative owners, or onto state land, they could be hunted, \u201cbut I\u2019m not sure they\u2019re even regulated as game\u201d on the Big Island, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an odd situation,\u201d Hess said. \u201cNobody anticipated this.\u201d<\/p>\n
— Patricia Tummons<\/i><\/p>\n
Volume 21, Number 9 April 2011<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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