Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations what kind of deere are these?

Hint look at the t-shirt

Just off the top of my head I would say Pere David's deer or Elaphurus davidianus

Agreed, they look like Pere David deer.

From Wikipedia

This species of deer was first made known to Western science in the 19th century, by Father Armand David, a French missionary working in China. At the time, the only surviving herd was in a preserve belonging to the Chinese emperor. The last herd of Père David's Deer that remained in China were eaten by Western and Japanese troops that were present at the time of the Boxer Rebellion[citation needed].
After Father David publicized their existence, a few animals were illegally transported to European countries for exhibitional purpose, and bred there. After the remaining population in China was extirpated, the remaining deer in Europe were gathered to England and bred for the preservation of the species. The current population stems from this herd. These deer are now found in zoos around the world. Two herds of Père David's Deer were reintroduced to Nanhaizi Milu Park, Beijing, and Dafeng Reserve, Jiangsu Province, China in the late 1980s. From the latter one, a third herd was established at the Tian'ezhou Wetland Reserve, Hebei Province in 1996. In spite of the small population size, the animals do not appear to suffer genetic problems from a genetic bottleneck, suggesting that a previous bottleneck had already removed harmful recessive alleles.

The deer on the t shirt looks like a fallow.

Eddie

There are not many of them in North America... Probably one of the rarer exotic deer species.

And you can have your very own for only $9000.

http://777ranch.com/rates.html#Exotics

Looks like that bass swallowed one of my boots.

Where are you James?

Did that bass eat one of the deer?

Which one is for dinner?

No season on exotics . Just wait until a big old Axis buck comes strolling through. Supposed to be more of them in Texas than in their native India now. It seems like the Texas country side is turning into one big exotic game ranch with all of the escaped critters running around these days.

jeffrey,

We have quite a few axis deer out at our deer lease. We've been seeing more and more over the past ten years. Axis venison is phenomenal...much better table fare than whitetail, and I eat both.

We've had a few sikas and fallows wander through, but the axis seem like they are there to stay.

It's kinda fun not knowing what species of deer you'll see next.

I wonder if james is buying a high-dollar brood stock LMB for his pond?

you guys were right peere Davids deere. That bass had a fairly large bluegill stuck in his gullet when he fell for a silver rattle trap. I think that fish had just spawned.

I'm jealous davasta! 4 different deer species running around... That is pretty cool!

It's a blast, CJ. I've never connected on a fallow. I did harvest one sika, but we don't see them very often.

I've taken 4 axis does in the past two years, and the meat is second-to-none. To be honest, we're trying to take more axis deer. Since gestation can be as short as 210 days, they "spawn" (to make it fish related) more than once per year. Although most sources say they give birth to a single offspring, I can personally guarantee that many in west Texas have twins. They reproduce fast enough that they are taking over whitetail habitat.

We'd like to have both, so we're trying to keep them in check.

Well, if you need help thinning those axis deer, give me call! I'll gladly make the trip to help! HAHA I am sure the sika deer your way are much larger than the little mini sika we have on the eastern shore of Maryland though. There is a small scattered feral herd on fallow deer in Maryland as well, but its very hush hush and all private property.

You'll be the first person on my list.

I didn't know there were sika and fallow on the east coast, but it does make sense. Who knows how many little pockets of them there are throughout the country.

The fallow deer herd is in Prince George's County, MD. Right next to Washington, DC! Kind of hard to believe... Rumor has it, an old fallow deer farm used to be there. When it was shut down by the state back in the early 70's, the owner basically gave them the bird and released his deer rather than euthanize them. I've heard there may only be a couple hundred deer in the herd, but cool none the less.

The sika deer are very tiny as compared to the sika in Texas. They are from a different subspecies from what I understand. A big male sika will run 85 lbs and have 6 points. I believe a wealthy land owner imported 6 to a private island on the Chesapeake Bay. They blew up in numbers and swam off the island. Now they have spread all along the Bay and number about 10,000 or so. Lots of great hunting for them and they are sneaky little buggers. They love marshy wetland areas. They were first concerned they would out compete whitetail in upland habitats but the sika seem to just stay in the marshy areas. Maryland Sika Deer

Got a fallow deer in March on little st. simmons island. Private island with herd established in early 1900's. I was supposedly the first to ever take a fallow with archery equipment, pretty cool. Man they are way more tender than whitetail and I thought whitetail were tender. I got a pure white cape at the taxidermist.

When in TX tried to get an axis ended up with giant hybrid ibex, you got some fun stuff to go after in TExas.

George Washington is credited with bringing the first exotic deer to this country. He had fallow deer on Mr. Vernon.

In northern California, there are white fallow deer all over the Willits area. I grew up seeing them, but was told they were albino deer. It wasn't until I actually saw one up close and realized that it didn't have pink eyes, and they had funny looking antlers. Point Reyes, just North of SF has Fallow, Axis and Tule Elk. It's one of my favorite places to go hiking when I lived there. Hurst also released allot of exotics on his ranch.

Here in Texas, all non native species are considered livestock and can be shot year round with a regular hunting license. If a landowner has them and they wonder off his land, he no longer has any rights to those animals and they become free game to anybody with a valid hunting license.

One of the problems with axis deer in particular is they eat the plants that the whitetails need to get through winter. Whitetail deer eat certain plants throughout the year. When it's time for winter, and they need those plants, the axis have already eaten them down to the point that it affects the health of the whitetail deer.

Axis meat is the best that I've tasted.

I went to an auction for exotics just South of Lampassas a few years ago. The animals were all from yearlings to just a few years old. None were of trohpy quality, and there was no mention of genetics. Some people said they were the worthless animals that the landowners wanted to get rid of, others said that they have to sell off stock to manage their herds. They looked prettty good to me, but I'm no judge of these things. Axis bucks were from $200 to $400 on average. Fallow were a bit less. I remember one that went for $180 that I was very tempted to buy. I didn't and still don't have a place for them, but it was so cheap that I wanted him. LOL Blackbucks were also in the high hundreds. Elk were in the mid 200's on up to over $500 each. The spikes were the cheapest and the heifer cows were getting top money.

When driving around Texas, it's not uncommon to see an 8ft game fence. When I do see a fence, I slow down to see what's in there. Sometimes you'll see something pretty cool. I was taking a picture of a Sable when a cop pulled up behind me and told me over the loudspeaker to get moving!!!! Oh well.

Eddie

I had a Nilgai and a couple of black buck antelope roaming around my property...I never saw them but the neighbor did...once

All we got are whitetails and a few wild boar that broke lose from a hunting preserve a few miles away that are now reproducing in the wild. Not overly exciting, but I am seriously pondering a trip to the eastern shore of MD to shoot me a sika deer.