Deer thrive when not being shot at

<p>Sixty years ago, a rancher in West Marin County bought a few dozen exotic deer from the San Francisco Zoo and released them on his land.</p><p>The idea was to stock the ranch for hunting, and for two decades it worked just fine. But the land eventually became part of Point Reyes National Seashore, where hunting is prohibited.</p><p>Today, the descendants of those 36¬exotic deer number about 1,200.</p><p>Park officials say they’re a menace to the natural health of the park. Animal lovers — including San Rafael-based In Defense of Animals — say they are “creatures of rare beauty” targeted for “slaughter.”</p><p>If this all sounds familiar, it’s not because of deja vu. Park officials have been studying ways to remove non-native deer from Point Reyes since 2001. Their plan to get rid of the deer through a combination of sharpshooting and contraception (no one has mentioned abstinence edu- cation) was approved in December.</p><p>But some park neighbors, joined by animal rights advocates and — this week — their local congress- woman, are protesting the sharp- shooting part of the plan, arguing that contraception is the only humane way to rid Point Reyes of the unwanted animals.</p><p>And it’s the only way to “prevent a bloodbath in our national park,” the Marin Humane Society said in a December statement.</p><p>Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, joined the fray this week with a letter to park Superintendent Don Neubacher (cc’d to Trinka Marris, a park neighbor at the forefront of the “Save the White Deer” campaign).</p><p>“White deer” refers to a species called fallow deer, which often have ghostly white hides. Native to Europe, they have adjusted well to Point Reyes, nearly doubling in population — to about 850 to 950 animals — in the past four years, said park spokesman John Dell’Osso.</p><p>The second species is Asian axis deer, which number about 250.</p><p>The two non-native species were culled by hunters hired by the park until 1994. Since then, they have expanded their range both within and outside of park boundaries, to the detriment of native species, Dell’Osso said. Fallow deer, which roam in herds of up to 200 animals, damage meadows and waterways as they tiptoe through on 800 hooves. They compete for food with other animals. Without some kind of intervention, the two deer species threaten to crowd out the park’s native populations of black-tailed deer and tule elk, according to the environmental impact study for the “management plan.”</p><p>Asked to comment on that plan two years ago, Woolsey said “the most positive action would be fertility control” but acknowledged that “may not be the entire answer.”</p><p>That was the study’s conclusion, too. The contracts for injecting female deer with contraceptives and shooting others already have been “secured,” Dell’Osso said.</p><p>But the bullets won’t be flying any time soon.</p><p>Woolsey’s latest letter, dated last week, urges park officials “to consider further research into alternative methods of immune contraception before moving ahead with lethal removal” of the deer.</p><p>“There is no urgency to move forward,” she wrote. “Park research fails to show any eco-systems collap- sing, or any native animal popula- tions currently declining because of the exotic deer’s presence.”</p><p>Dell’Osso said “we’re certainly going to work with” Woolsey. But he noted that the park spent more than four years studying the problem and arriving at a solution. A “blue- ribbon panel of experts” advised park officials that “contraception alone will not work.”</p><p>Meanwhile, the deer are out there doing what deer do, and the herds continue to grow.</p><p>All because of some guy who wanted a few unusual animals to shoot at.</p><p>Chris Coursey is at 521-5223 or chris.coursey@pressdemocrat.com.</p>