The overpopulation of axis deer has taken an environmental toll, but Maui Nui Venison sees it as a resource instead of a pest
In 1868, the government of Hong Kong gave eight axis deer to Hawaii’s King Kamehameha V. They were a beautiful gift, these creatures that hail from south Asia, with their honey-colored pelts marked by a smattering of white spots. But their incursion into Maui started much later, in the 1950s, when they were brought to the island for recreational hunters.
Now, more than a century after their introduction, an estimated 60,000 traverse the Hawaiian islands of Lanai, Maui and Molokai in herds that are reshaping the environment. Unlike the white-tailed deer common along the US east coast, whose breeding season lasts from October to January, axis deer breed year-round. Their herds are constantly reduplicating. They feast on native grasses and endangered plants, chewing them down to their roots, leaving wide swathes of lands fallow. They can leap 10ft over fencing or barrel through it, consuming farmers’ crops and the cattle feed needed for Maui’s small beef industry.
In February, looking for a specific blood sausage that reminded an aunt of the wild boar sausage her Portuguese mother once made, I found it was unavailable. Joy Enriques, owner of Uncle Louie’s Sausage Co, in Kahului, said: “We stopped making it. We couldn’t get the amount of green onions we needed for it. The deer ate all that the local farmers were growing.”
Axis deer are also uniquely destructive. Thankfully, they are also delicious. For one company, that overpopulation is an opportunity.
Maui Nui Venison harvests the deer from privately owned ranches, whose owners advise how many animals they want hunted. That culling is overseen by US Department of Agriculture (USDA) agents, who record every single kill and track the deer population with high-tech tools. The deer gets turned into steaks, ground meat, bone broth, jerky and even organ-based health supplements.
The company’s work might just be interspecies turnaround as fair play. A 2011 US interior department report said: “This deer species is a voracious grazer of forest understory plants, including seedlings of native trees that are critical to the survival of native Hawaiian forest birds.” In Hawaii, axis deer met no natural predators, allowing them to run rampant. In January, Josh Green, the state’s governor, declared a state of emergency due to drought conditions exacerbated by axis deer. It is the 25th such proclamation regarding the impact of axis deer on Hawaii.
For almost a decade, Maui Nui Venison has led the charge to turn axis deer into food. Using night-vision technology, infrared drones, utility terrain vehicles and the same guns wielded by military special forces, Maui Nui’s hunters harvest deer every night, weather permitting. Usually, 40-55 deer are culled nightly, most of them a few years old. Each deer produces about 42lb of meat, but some bucks, weighing up to 200lb, can produce a lot more.
On an exceptionally clear and bright night in February, I followed Maui Nui’s shooters and spotters into the brush-covered landscape of central Maui. The hunters are all men, mostly in their early 20s, who work seven days on and seven days off. They nap during the day in converted, insulated shipping containers, sealed off from daylight with foil and duct tape.
Each night, they go off in different directions in two separate teams, each accompanied by a USDA inspector who looks at each animal and grants the shooter permission to shoot. Their convoy of off-road vehicles looped around thickets of kiawe mesquite trees filled with thorns (the kind “that will pop all your tires”, said the shooters repeatedly).
Sheldon Simeon, a chef and owner of the restaurant Tiffany’s in Wailuku, stuffs his wontons with Maui Nui’s venison rather than the traditional ground pork.
“We have a wild food source that has wrecked our ecosystem and has become a nuisance by running rampant. People can be intimidated by venison because it’s associated with tasting gamey,” said Simeon. “Hawaii’s people are very ‘go to Costco and buy ground pork or canned pork’ ever since being accustomed to WW2 rations. But Maui Nui’s venison is not so gamey because of what [the deer are] eating on Maui. It’s full of flavor and it also cooks really easily.”
“And they’re clean!” said a beaming Keahi Camara, Maui Nui Venison’s harvest specialist, as he drove a UTV to the company’s base camp. Unlike wild boar, which also cause destruction, but on a much smaller scale, axis deer typically aren’t covered in dung or mud.
There are other benefits. “A pound of conventional ground beef costs $20 on Molokai,” said Camara, who is originally from another island overrun by axis deer. “Wouldn’t you rather pay $5 for high-quality local venison you can make into a burger?”
Whenever a deer is spotted, the harvesters sound an electronic call to get the deer’s attention, which sounds like a melodic duck quack. Then often a soundtrack: a crack, a soaring whistle and a thud.
