U.S.A.
March 1, 2021
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7
Deer native to India starve to death amid drought in Hawai‘i
DEADLY DROUGHT. This image provided by
Honolulu Civil Beat shows axis deer walking through
an opening in Maunaloa, Hawai‘i, on the island of
Molokai. Axis deer, a species native to India presented
as a gift from Hong Kong to the king of Hawai‘i in
1868, have fed hunters and their families on the rural
island of Molokai for generations. But for the commu-
nity of about 7,500 people where self-sustainability is
a way of life, the invasive deer are both a cherished
food source and a danger to the island ecosystem.
Now, the proliferation of the non-native deer and
drought on Molokai have brought the problem into
focus. Hundreds of deer have died from starvation,
stretching thin the island’s limited resources. (Cory
Lum/Honolulu Civil Beat via AP)
By Caleb Jones
The Associated Press
ONOLULU — Axis deer, a
species native to India presented
as a gift from Hong Kong to the
king of Hawai‘i in 1868, have fed hunters
and their families on the rural island of
Molokai for generations. But for the
community of about 7,500, where self-
sustainability is a way of life, the invasive
deer are both a cherished food source and a
danger to their island ecosystem.
Now, drought on Molokai has brought
the problem into focus. Hundreds of deer
have died from starvation, stretching thin
the island’s limited resources.
The drought is among the island’s worst
in recent memory and has been going on
for nearly two years.
“During the last wet season, which in
Hawai‘i runs from October through April,
it never pulled out of drought,” said U.S.
National Weather Service hydrologist
Kevin Kodama. “It’s been pretty bad,
especially for pasture conditions and just
the general vegetation. ... It’s had an
impact on the wildlife.”
In India, axis deer are kept in check by
tigers and leopards. But with no natural
predators on Molokai, the population has
exploded, and there now are an estimated
50,000 to 70,000 deer on the 260-square-
mile island.
Residents have a hard time controlling
the population by hunting alone. And the
animals, in desperate search for food and
water, are destroying crops and the forest
watershed people rely on for food and
drinking water.
When the deer devour fruits, vegetables,
and other plants, it leads to erosion and
runoff into the ocean that alters the
island’s coral reef — another important
food source.
“Molokai has the longest continuous
fringing reef in the United States, and it’s
one of our community’s greatest assets,”
said Russell Kallstrom, information
coordinator for the Nature Conservancy’s
Molokai program. “When ungulates
overpopulate an area, that erosion impacts
not just the reef, but people’s lifestyle and
the subsistence lifestyle that’s there.”
The reefs around Molokai are getting
more runoff and sedimentation than
expected and at least part of it is caused by
erosion from the deer, said Greg Asner, a
H
Hawai‘i-based marine ecologist.
Sedimentation that settles on the coral
can kill it, said Asner, who heads Arizona
State University’s Center for Global
Discovery and Conservation Science.
“Fish, invertebrates like crabs, lobsters,
you name it — they all rely on that same
habitat.”
The deer problem has persisted for years
but is getting worse, according to Glenn
Teves, a Molokai native and the
University of Hawai‘i’s county extension
agent for the island.
“They started moving into the farm area
and are just raising hell,” said Teves, who
owns a small farm on Molokai.
“It’s a perfect storm,” he said. “What
farmers did was they started fencing off
their areas, but not all farmers could afford
the fencing. So you may be protecting
yourself, but you’re just pushing the deer
into the another farmer’s place.”
Options for controlling the population
include more hunting, aerial sniping, and
fencing that protects certain areas. Sterili-
zing deer is difficult and expensive, and no
one wants to poison or eradicate them.
If healthy deer are killed, slaughter
houses could process the meat into
hamburger for food banks and others in
need, Teves said. Even composting the
carcasses of unhealthy animals has been
considered, he said, “so we can use it to
bring the land back.”
Hawai‘i governor David Ige recently
issued an emergency disaster declaration
for Maui County, which includes Molokai,
so the state could “take immediate
measures to reduce and control the axis
Hindu festival draws crowds of bathers to rivers
Continued from page 5
place in heaven” and earn “a better
rebirth.”
Authorities took months to build what
looks like a temporary tented city on the
river banks. Police patrol the site and
floating bridges were built to help people
get from one side of the river to the other.
Boats ferry pilgrims from the bank of the
Yamuna to the Sangam, where they bathe
in the holy water and offer their prayers.
The festival is being held even though
COVID-19 cases in some parts of the
country are rising after months of steady
decline. India has confirmed 11 million
cases and over 150,000 deaths.
Health officials have told local media
that they have tested tens of thousands of
pilgrims for the virus since the festival
began on January 14.
My Turn: The new normal
Continued from page 6
a good thing to continue the precautions
we adopted during the pandemic.
Shouldn’t we all be washing our hands
more often? Couldn’t all restaurants and
stores make it a regular practice to provide
hand sanitizer? Why not wear masks at
public events indoors? Discontinuing
handshakes is a good idea. If school-age
children become sick, they should not be
penalized by missing class and instead be
able to learn from home. And if someone
has a cold, and they cannot afford to stay
home, it should be mandatory that they
wear a mask to protect others. For the good
of everyone.
Before the pandemic, I began wearing a
mask when on an airplane because I got
tired of getting sick every time I returned
home from a trip. Wearing a mask aboard
a plane kept me healthy. I’ll never look at
travel or being around people the same
way ever again. For me, taking safety
precautions will continue. That will be my
new normal.
To learn more about vaccinations in Oregon,
visit <covidvaccine.oregon.gov>. In Washington
state, visit <covidvaccinewa.org>. Portions of the
websites are available in other languages, such as
Arabic, Burmese, Dari, Simplified and Traditional
Chinese, Farsi, Hindi, Hmong, Korean, Lao,
Marshallese, Pashto, Thai, Vietnamese, and others.
More options to help eligible people register
for a vaccination are opening up, including
<https://vaccinefinder.org>. For updates, please
visit <www.facebook.com/TheAsianReporter>.
deer populations and to remove and
dispose of the carcasses quickly.”
Maui County’s mayor, mayor Michael
Victorino, said the disaster proclamation
also can help unlock state and federal
funding to mitigate some financial losses.
“Our agricultural sector has sustained
substantial pasture and crop damage from
axis deer in search of food,” he said.
Maui county recently set aside $1
million to address the problem, splitting it
among Molokai and two other islands —
Maui and Lanai — where axis deer were
brought in the 1950s and now are
damaging farms, ranches, and forests.
A bill last year to allocate another $1
million died in the state legislature after
pushback from Molokai residents who
feared the deer would be wiped out. State
lawmakers are again trying to pass a
measure for funding to help manage the
deer.
“They trample sea bird burrows, and
their grazing and trampling causes soil
erosion, causing siltation of reefs that
support fish people eat as well, and
ultimately, watersheds and fresh water
production,” said Jeff Bagshaw, an
outreach specialist for the state’s Division
of Forestry and Wildlife in Maui County.
Hunting can help control the deer, but
Bagshaw says hunters tend to shoot bucks,
which increases “harem size” and doesn’t
do much to decrease the overall popula-
tion.
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Molokai were issued hunting permits, he
said. Statewide the number was about
10,600. Nearly 1,500 permits were issued
to non-residents, many who come to
Hawai‘i specifically to hunt, but
coronavirus restrictions in 2020 meant far
fewer people came to the state for leisure.
Because of the overpopulation, there is
no daily bag limit on deer nor a designated
hunting season.
A number of other non-native species
have become established in the islands,
including goats and pigs. According to the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the hoofed
animals
are
among
the
largest
contributors to ecosystem degradation and
extinction in Hawai‘i, where plants and
animals that evolved in isolation over
millions of years lack natural defenses
against introduced species.
In addition to causing to environmental
damage, the starving deer population has
become a public nuisance. Dead ones are
rotting around the island, including along
shorelines where people fish, swim, and
surf.
Private landowners are responsible for
disposing of dead deer on their property,
while state and county agencies have to
clean up dead deer on public lands.
And people who regularly drive on
Molokai say the normally skittish deer
have become more brazen while seeking
food and water and pose a serious roadway
hazard.
“Just driving down the highway, herds
will suddenly decide to cross, and so a lot of
people have had their vehicles totalled as a
result of impacts with deer,” said the
Nature Conservancy’s Kallstrom.
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