Posts: 6,214
Threads: 354
Joined: Feb 2006
7T - Not sure WHEN you where in Maui, but the current axis deer survey has ~ 8,000 axis deer over 100k acres in East Maui, so it is very possible that you were in an area that they were not, but for those that have a higher deer population, the numbers are becoming bothersome, with farmers having crops destroyed & there have been deer/auto collisions...
http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/break...63721.html
Posts: 2,980
Threads: 177
Joined: Aug 2006
If you want deer, move to Spokane. If you don't like humans, become a Republican Senator.
This is the Gallapagos but we haven't treated it that way. There are plant and animal species that exist here and nowhere else on Earth. We are down to the last few now. Introducing axis deer is like taking a giant lawnmower to what remains of Hawaii's native plant life. It is not cost efficient to go hunt axis deer. You can buy chicken at Wal-mart for much, much less than you can gearing up for, bagging, transporting, cleaning, processing and storing an axis deer. This isn't about food. This is about gun fetishism. Those that transport axis deer here are criminals. Perhaps the state will set up an axis game hunting reserve on Kahoolawe. Then, gun fetishists will have a landscape as denuded as they seem to wish for the Big Island and the hunting will be more sporting as there will be a real possibility of stepping on unexploded ordnance. Perhaps the hunt will be televised on A & E. I'd tune in for that and fast forward over the boring parts.
As for the scourge of having haoles here on the island, I should say I just visited the Iolani Palace. They had crystal imported from Austria, along with many other coveted articles of European culture. Royalty wore ridiculous, full-length coverings that were completely ill-suited to the tropics. That told me everything I needed to know. There was complicity in the coming doom. I won't be complicit in any attempt to destroy what remains of Hawaii Island's native landscape and will oppose the importation of axis deer and will support their eradication.
Posts: 526
Threads: 11
Joined: Oct 2006
Thank you Kelena, another post where I wish the forum software has a "Like" button.
In one of our Hawai'i plant guide books there are before and after pictures of goat foraging on a huge cliff on Kauai. The before picture is green and leafy. The after picture shows the entire cliff denuded and rocky. The goats essentially consumed everything. There is no question that introduced ungulates have destroyed enormous areas of native plant life, pushing many species much closer to extinction. With all respect to those who hunt them for their family's food, the closer we can get to eradication of these invasive animals the better the chances for survival of native plants, the la'au maoli.
Posts: 2,481
Threads: 10
Joined: Feb 2008
First, if it is really about food, then the hunters should just steal directly from the farmers without using the deer as intermediaries. The hunters would get more food and the farmers would suffer less loss.
Second, I know to stop listening as soon as some starry-eyed dreamer starts talking about how humans are the ultimate invasive species. Their next statements ought logically to be how we are going to eradicate people. Some innate instinct usually stops people before they drop THAT bomb but unfortunately not before they start down that road. It is the ultimate useless statement.
Posts: 3,188
Threads: 216
Joined: Sep 2007
Maui census reports 8k axis deer on island
Posts: 2,377
Threads: 124
Joined: Jun 2009
Kelena,
I'm Libertarian so don't confuse me with a Republican when I comment on this:
I agreed with some of your posting with exception of the unnecessary off topic far-reaching fanatic comments which only served to discredit everything else you wrote.
"If you want deer, move to Spokane. If you don't like humans, become a Republican Senator."
Disjointed Political Rubbish Comment and only the first sentence contained merit but the second sentence destroyed it.
" This isn't about food. This is about gun fetishism."
Ignorant Rubbish, it was about creating extended tourism for those with a hunting fetish.
"I won't be complicit in any attempt to destroy what remains."
Your presence on the island and use of Western world infrastructure and products is an act of complicity.
- Armed citizens provide security of a free State.
Posts: 3,188
Threads: 216
Joined: Sep 2007
Beef or deer? which would have less impact? - from our agreed upon reputable source:
"according to a 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), our diets and, specifically, the meat in them cause more greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide, and the like to spew into the atmosphere than either transportation or industry. (Greenhouse gases trap solar energy, thereby warming the earth's surface"
http://www.scientificamerican.com/articl...-hamburger
Posts: 2,377
Threads: 124
Joined: Jun 2009
The Axis Deer need to be completely removed from the islands now and not 20 years from now, by then it will be too late.
Yellow Stone park has far more roaming acreage and the deer populations destroyed much of the park after the wolves were destroyed. Without a natural check on the deer, it isn't possible to limit their destruction to the native vegitation.
- Armed citizens provide security of a free State.
Posts: 14,115
Threads: 424
Joined: Aug 2012
quote:
The Axis Deer need to be completely removed from the islands now and not 20 years from now, by then it will be too late.
Didn't "they" say the same thing about feral sheep and wild pigs?
Maybe "someone" should fly some deer up to Waikiki...
Posts: 2,377
Threads: 124
Joined: Jun 2009
Deer would have less impact from a global scale perspective but not for the reasons of the BS greenhouse gas theory. After the human population begins to die off from relying on deer for meat and having to hunt it down through ineffective means, the ecosystem would begin to recover as the human population dwindled and returned to the ancient loincloth lifestyle.
quote:
Originally posted by Bullwinkle
Beef or deer? which would have less impact? - from our agreed upon reputable source:
"according to a 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), our diets and, specifically, the meat in them cause more greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide, and the like to spew into the atmosphere than either transportation or industry. (Greenhouse gases trap solar energy, thereby warming the earth's surface"
http://www.scientificamerican.com/articl...-hamburger
- Armed citizens provide security of a free State.
|
