09-29-2011, 01:45 PM
Hello All
First off, Senator I would like to say that I am much more concerned about snakes, horned lizards, and flying squirrels establishing themselves in Hawaii than axis deer. All of these would be impossible to eradicate much like the coqui, and snakes can actually kill people!
Actual pictures of axis deer roaming the big island have yet to be released to the public, I won't fully believe it until I see it!
On to my response to many posts about this topic. I am afraid that many of you are not as much of an expert on the matter as you may think.
Axis deer will eat anything including many invasive plant species such as grouse which is a terrible thorny bush taking over large portions of palila habitat on mauna kea. They will be doing us a favor. Unfortunately they will not spread as far and wide as you expect, deer need sitting water to drink so they will not survive in dryer parts of the island. Unlike many of you may believe, axis deer are originally from India. So please stop comparing them to north american whitetails, they come from completely different environments. Axis deer actually do not multiply like rabbits, they generally have one fawn a year. The presence of deer in the state is not a recent thing, they have been adapting and evolving here since 1868 (our wild sheep arrived in 1786) which is long before any of us or even our ancestors arrived. The first axis deer where a gift to King Kamehameha (same story for the wild sheep) and were protected and wanted on Hawaiian lands, unlike our haole ancestors haha. Now in recent times we suddenly feel the need to kill of these amazing animals which arrived and adapted to this Hawaiian environment just the same as we have. The only difference is that we have damaged the environment and killed off many more native species than any wild deer or sheep ever could. What next, start eradicating certain ethnicities of people because they arrived here later than others and cause damage to the environment? I don’t think so. In killing off wild deer, sheep, goats, and pigs in Hawaii we are actually killing off our culture and way of life.
I have to agree with oink on this, if the deer are already here we have to make the best of it. I'm surprised that nobody mentioned that axis deer and mouflon sheep hunting account for most of lanai's economy. This offers a great opportunity for profit. Currently hunting and wildlife watching accounts for nearly $230 million towards our economy! (http://www.hawaiistateassessment.info/SW...eation.pdf) This number will only increase with the presence of axis deer.
As kipa mentioned, you kill off all of our sheep on the mountain and there will be a large flux of other animals brought in to fill the void haha
First off, Senator I would like to say that I am much more concerned about snakes, horned lizards, and flying squirrels establishing themselves in Hawaii than axis deer. All of these would be impossible to eradicate much like the coqui, and snakes can actually kill people!
Actual pictures of axis deer roaming the big island have yet to be released to the public, I won't fully believe it until I see it!
On to my response to many posts about this topic. I am afraid that many of you are not as much of an expert on the matter as you may think.
Axis deer will eat anything including many invasive plant species such as grouse which is a terrible thorny bush taking over large portions of palila habitat on mauna kea. They will be doing us a favor. Unfortunately they will not spread as far and wide as you expect, deer need sitting water to drink so they will not survive in dryer parts of the island. Unlike many of you may believe, axis deer are originally from India. So please stop comparing them to north american whitetails, they come from completely different environments. Axis deer actually do not multiply like rabbits, they generally have one fawn a year. The presence of deer in the state is not a recent thing, they have been adapting and evolving here since 1868 (our wild sheep arrived in 1786) which is long before any of us or even our ancestors arrived. The first axis deer where a gift to King Kamehameha (same story for the wild sheep) and were protected and wanted on Hawaiian lands, unlike our haole ancestors haha. Now in recent times we suddenly feel the need to kill of these amazing animals which arrived and adapted to this Hawaiian environment just the same as we have. The only difference is that we have damaged the environment and killed off many more native species than any wild deer or sheep ever could. What next, start eradicating certain ethnicities of people because they arrived here later than others and cause damage to the environment? I don’t think so. In killing off wild deer, sheep, goats, and pigs in Hawaii we are actually killing off our culture and way of life.
I have to agree with oink on this, if the deer are already here we have to make the best of it. I'm surprised that nobody mentioned that axis deer and mouflon sheep hunting account for most of lanai's economy. This offers a great opportunity for profit. Currently hunting and wildlife watching accounts for nearly $230 million towards our economy! (http://www.hawaiistateassessment.info/SW...eation.pdf) This number will only increase with the presence of axis deer.
As kipa mentioned, you kill off all of our sheep on the mountain and there will be a large flux of other animals brought in to fill the void haha