For the past couple of years, every time there’s a conference on Kenting’s ecology, someone would bring this up…
Open Kenting up for deer hunting.
So they say there are more than 2,000 deer in Kenting, and they eat just about every kind of vegetation, and is pretty much laying waste to rare plants as well as human crops.
Somehow I feel 2,000 deer isn’t exactly a lot of deer, but some experts really want this done.
The Formosan Sika Deer was hunting to near extinction because the Dutch discovered it was a hot commodity for the Japanese as well as the European market. During the Dutch Colonial Period of 60 years, more than 2 million deer skins were exported to Europe.
Subsequent loss of habitats didn’t make things easier for the deer. It was declared that there are no wild sika in Taiwan back in 1988. At the time, there were just 22 captive deer in the Taipei Zoo, and every Formosan sika deer you see today is the descendent of the original 22.
Researchers began reintroducing the sika back into Kenting in 1994 and stopped around 2009. In total they release 233 sikas, and their population just exploded to more than 2000 today.
Some researchers are arguing the sika population be controlled by TNR. Some want to just give hunting another chance.
Aside from humans, which were the natural deer predators? Bears? None anymore, at least in the area. Snow tigers? Extinct.
Balance needs diversity. We need diversity for balance. One cannot exist without the other.
I say move deer elsewhere. The relationshop between nature and the communities has always been… testy. It is hard for people to see they are not shooting themselves in the foot by killing nature.
Bottom line: people salivating over deer horns for Chinese medicine. Sigh.