![]() ![]() The leeward sides of the islands are quite dry, somewhat resembling the high desert ecosystems on the mainland. What many do not realize is that every island has a leeward side and windward side. ![]() When most picture Hawaii, thoughts drift to the miles of pristine white-sand beaches and tropical rainforest jungles. Molokai has an overabundance of deer, and destruction from the animals is everywhere. This sounds like a wildly successful conservation story, and it is, but as the axis deer have proven, too much of a good thing can have negative consequences. Now, 154 years later, that original introduction has erupted into an estimated 50,000–70,000 animals on Molokai, with successful introductions from this herd to both the islands of Maui and Lanai. These eight axis deer were placed on the tranquil island of Molokai as a future source of protein for the islanders. ![]() In 1868, Hong Kong, then a British colony, gifted eight axis deer-three bucks, four does and a male fawn-to King Kamehameha V, the ruler of the Hawaiian Islands. The Gift That Kept On GivingĪxis deer, also known as chital deer, are native to the forests of India, Sri Lanka and Nepal where they have thrived for centuries. With less than an hour before sunset, we frantically gathered up our gear and put a game plan in motion to cut several hundred yards between us and the buck. Dunham took one look through the spotter and immediately declared: “We need to kill that deer.” It was time to practice what I preach to my clients and trust my guide. My Leupold spotting scope revealed a striking buck with long sweeping beams and substantial brow and caudal tines. With several other herds of axis deer between us and the fired-up buck, we didn’t dare move until the axis showed itself.įast forward an hour and Earl Dunham, my guide, whisper-yelled: “There he is!”Ībout 800 yards above us, the buck emerged from a dense pocket of trees trailing a doe. Separating us from the rutting buck was a steep and rugged, thorn-infested, hellhole of a canyon whose terraced ledges fell off so steep that we could not see the bottom from our current vantage point. The guttural roars of a lovestruck axis deer echoed down the drainage. ![]()
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