The struggle to contain, and eat, the invasive deer taking over Hawaii

From the article:

The axis deer are a fascinating and multi-dimensional inhabitant. They are simultaneously invasive and part of traditional culture; they destroy food supplies and are an extremely important source of food themselves; they are protected by law and despised by some parts of law enforcement; they are wildly destructive to Hawaii and also, during the worst of COVID-19, were a beacon of hope.

Axis deer, which are sometimes known as chital, are native to Sri Lanka, parts of India and Nepal. They’re sometimes known as the spotted deer, because they have white spots on their tawny coats, and sometimes as the barking deer, because they are extremely vocal. They first showed up in Hawaii in 1867, given as a gift to King Kamehameha V: three bucks, four does and one male faun, for a total of eight deer. The gift-givers were from Hong Kong, then a colony of Britain. The deer were initially released on Molokai, and they multiplied quickly; some were later moved to Oahu, Lanai and, eventually, in 1959, to Maui.

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[I]t’s not unreasonable to wonder whether the deer should simply be completely eradicated from Hawaii. And, in truth, Hawaii has taken some measures to keep the deer population from spreading: It is now illegal to move deer from one island to another, and when they were illegally brought to the Big Island in 2009, it took only a few years for the government to remove them all. Even in Maui, the Department of Forestry will remove deer from particularly delicate ecosystems, especially watersheds or places where there are endangered species, provided those places are on state land. “We’re the most isolated landmass on the planet,” says Jake Muise, one of the owners of Maui Nui, a commercial venison operation in Maui. (Muise also handled removing the deer from the Big Island, a few years back.) “If our watersheds aren’t functioning properly…water is the most valuable thing we have.”

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[T]he process for actually eradicating these deer from Hawaii would be insanely expensive and maybe impossible; while the Department can remove deer from state land, that land is often remote and rugged and not really the preferred habitat for the deer. Getting permission from every private landowner with deer on their property, and figuring out the liability situation for having government agents with guns there, all in the service of somehow killing and removing more than a hundred thousand deer? It’s just not going to happen.

Another reason it’s not going to happen, beyond the practicalities, is that, according to Bagshaw, the deer are legally protected. The state constitution, dating back to at least 1950, has included a clause meant to protect the traditional subsistence practices of Hawaiians. But therein lies the question: What exactly is “traditional”? Hawaiian courts have set the precedent that any practice that existed in Hawaii before November 25, 1892 counts as “traditional.” That date was chosen for its importance to Hawaiian law; it was the last reorganization of the Kingdom of Hawaii’s judiciary system prior to American annexation. And the axis deer, of course, had arrived a couple of decades prior to that date. So the law that protects traditional subsistence practices applies, just barely, to a wildly destructive invasive species.

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Despite the fact that the axis deer doesn’t belong in Hawaii, that bit about it being protected as a subsistence practice isn’t actually that crazy. Deer hunting, although only 150 years old, has legitimately become a tradition on the islands of Molokai, Maui and Lanai. Deer, especially but not exclusively in the more rural parts of those islands, is a major part of the culture. Many families have extra chest freezers to store axis deer, and you can find it on the grill at backyard barbecues. (Most often, it’s sliced thin and marinated in teriyaki sauce, according to Muise.)

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The Department of Forestry is engaged in an awkward dance regarding the deer. It can’t eradicate the deer, even if that makes ecological sense. But it’s also the agency that hands out hunting permits, and boy, is it ever handing them out. “On Maui and Molokai, there is no bag limit and there is no season,” says Bagshaw. “You can hunt ’em like a videogame from sunrise to sunset, if you want.” The permits cost $20 for the year and require no more than a gun license and an easy online application. Frankly, the Department of Forestry would love it if hunting was even more common than it is.