DLNR considers axis deer hunting

By TOM CALLIS

Tribune-Herald staff writer

Big Island hunters may soon be granted permission to kill axis deer.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources has proposed allowing the deer, considered invasive, to be hunted without permits or bag limits for up to five years. The special designation would clarify their hunting status as well as assist the state with efforts to remove them from the island, said Paul Conry, forestry and wildlife division administrator.

“We’ve had inquiries from a lot of people out doing hunting for other species,” he said. “And it kind of clarifies that … if they encounter an axis deer, they can go ahead and shoot and take it.”

On Friday, the DLNR board will consider the proposal, which would also declare the deer to be “destructive to agriculture, native plants and wildlife” on the island.

The deer were introduced illegally to the island in 2009.

DLNR estimates the Big Island deer population to be less than 100. Only four are known to have been introduced.

While new to the island, the deer have been long established on Maui, Lanai and Molokai.

DLNR considers their environmental impact to be “severe,” according to the proposal, which also refers to them as “voracious browsers of crops, foraging grass and forest plants.”

The agency, through the Big Island Invasive Species Committee, has been paying a few hunters to eliminate them from the island since April. The hunters, which recently went from two to three, have killed three deer in Ka‘u.

Efforts to track and kill the animals, considered elusive, are hindered by them crossing private property and being active at night.

“It’s a little bit of a needle in a haystack,” said Jake Muise, one of the hired hunters.

Muise said they hunt five days a week and, so far, have only found the three deer.

“We have not found an established population on the island,” he said.

The deer were killed within two miles of where they were released.

Daniel Rocha of Mountain View was sentenced to 100 hours of community service earlier this month for releasing four axis deer on the island.

Thomas Hauptman, a Maui pilot hired to fly them here as part of a deer-for-sheep swap, was sentenced to provide BIISC with 500 hours of flight time. It will go toward tracking and identifying the deer.

The deer have an estimated 30 percent annual reproduction rate, which suggests the “potential for rapid population growth,” according to DLNR.

Some hunters are opposed to eliminating the deer altogether and would like to see them treated as a managed resource.

One of them, Colin Onaka, told the Tribune-Herald in August their meat could help feed families.

“As far as the deer, it’s a tough one for me,” he said then. “I’d like to see it … so we don’t have to go to another island to hunt.”

On Wednesday, he called the proposal a “double standard” since he feels that DLNR does a lot to restrict hunting.

“They say we can’t hunt here, but they come to the public when they need the public’s help,” Onaka said.

Muise said he hasn’t seen the proposal but thinks the state has the right idea.

“My initial thoughts are any opportunity that local communities and hunters can have to help us out legally, I certainly support because there are a lot … of people that really want to help, and this will give them an ability to do so,” he said.

Though exact numbers of the deer are unknown, Muise said plans reflect having the state-funded hunting program lasting “less than five years based on the information we have right now.”

Deer sightings can be reported to the BIISC by calling 443-4036.

Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.