Hawaii is not a place most people associate with deer. But in the soggy, rainy Kauai landscape, there are Columbian black-tailed deer that aren't native to Kauai, and were there at the urging of a decision in the 1960s that very few Americans are aware of. According to a 2001 US Fish and Wildlife Service publication, the deer were introduced in 1961 for sport hunting, and the population on Kauai has since grown to well over 500 animals across the island's western side.
A gift with strings nobody asked about
The deer were introduced as a game species, part of a broader pattern of wildlife introductions in Hawaii. In a similar trend, the axis deer were introduced on Molokai in 1868 and, by the early 1900s, had multiplied in numbers so much that the state was forced to use professional hunters to reduce their populations.
