From the Hur Herald:
Dustin Hardbarger of Brohard-Leading Creek shot and killed a male Sika deer in his yard, but not before consulting with game officials.
WV-DNR came out to confirm that it was in fact a Sika, “The officer said that the animals had escaped from a pen in Ohio and there is an open season on them to eradicate the deer before they get established.”
The Sika have been sighted in Wood, Ritchie, and now Calhoun Counties.
Sika deer are native to East Asia. They are actually quite closely related to the wapiti (“elk”) of North America, which are also spreading into West Virginia. Sika deer can hybridize with our “elk,” producing what are called “silk deer” or Sika grande. Sika deer are thought to resemble the ancestral Cervus deer from which all these species evolved.
Virginia and Maryland have established populations of sika, but West Virginia really doesn’t have established populations. This is actually the first I’ve ever heard of one in this state, though I’m sure there have been a few spotted over the years. They are very commonly kept at private game farms for canned hunting purposes.
And considering how far away from Ohio this particular one was killed, I would say the chances of them becoming established here are fairly high.
There are just too many remote areas for them to hide, and I don’t think everyone is aware that this sort of deer is a different species.
I can imagine that some landowners would want to protect the big trophy bucks, even if they are invasive species.
So the number of confirmed deer species in West Virginia is at now at 3: White-tailed deer, elk/wapiti, and now sika.
Are Reeves’s muntjac or fallow deer next?
I can see where this could cause a bunch of confusion. Sika deer look a lot like elk/wapiti. In West Virginia, elk/wapiti are fully protected, but sika have no protections at all.
And the two species hybridize!
I’m surprised it took this long for a WV hunter to take one. They were introduced to the Delmarva decades ago and apparently do much better in marshy/swampy conditions than do the Whitetails. I have to believe that they’ve radiated out from there over the years.
Also from what I’ve read, some female Elk prefer the Sika bulls (something about the frequency of their belling), so the potential for hybridization goes way up.
I believe that fallow deer have probably already escaped captivity from time to time in WV, but I don’t know of any specific instances of them breeding in the wild. My uncle used to be a foreman on a large farm somewhere near Huntington, I think maybe in Wayne County. It was owned by one of the sausage companies but I don’t recall which one. The owner kept a sizable herd of semi-tame fallow deer on the property and they routinely wandered on and off the premises. I was just a little girl at the time, 8- or 9-ish, but the deer and peacocks at the farm made a big impression on me when we visited Uncle Fred and Aunt Ethel! The area was quite rural at that time (probably still is; I haven’t been up that way in a long time). I remember it being surrounded by forest, and we had to walk across a long swinging bridge across a river to get to the farmhouse. Looking back, I think they must have had other access roads, since it was a commercial farm, but none near the farmhouse. Most of the deer were the normally colored spotted fallow deer, but there were some white ones and piebald ones too. I don’t know if the farm still exists (or what may have become of the deer if it doesn’t).
A question comes to mind here. Will the Sika’s flesh taste like Elk, or due to differences in habitat preference/forage, more like venison.
Found on the website of a Texas “hunting lodge”:
“Sika Deer meat is probably the strongest flavored venison meat, which leaves much interpretation to be made. The Chinese fancy the meat, while many Americans dislike its strong gamey taste.”
That answers that–it tastes like venison. For those of you who have never tasted Elk it is very much like lean beef.
There are lots of people who raise various cervid hybrids and sell the meat commercially. I’d say that information is available online somewhere.
Problem with that K, is that the animals bred for slaughter would probably be fed a diet other than what they would likely have in the wild. As I know you’re aware, what a deer eats very much effects its edibility. While I like strong-flavored meats (an uneducated palate I suspect), most Americans don’t.
You have a point, of course. The taste of wild meat depends a lot on the time of year, too, since different plants are available for browse at different times. I think the site I quoted is a canned hunt-type place, where animals are allowed to live semi-wild, but they probably have supplemental feeding and watering to compensate for natural fluctuation, etc. So they probably would taste different from deer that are completely wild.
I also have to confess that I could have done the research, but being inherently lazy; and also trying to spur an interesting exchange on the Blog, I opted for asking for opinions. ;)