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Deer herd on Catalina Island to be culled300 out of500 tags to be issued during hunting season - from July to December - must be used for does.THE ASSOCIATED PRESSavalon • Hunters will be asked to begin thinning the population of 2,400 nonnative mule deer on Santa Catalina Island in an effort to eradicate the most destructive invasive species left on the isle.The Catalina Island Conservancy will require that 60 percent of 500 tags issued this hunting season be for does. Each doe annually has twins, so that takes out three deer in a year, spokesman John Mack said. Hunting season runs from July to December.Drought has magnified the deer problem because food is at a premium andthe animals have stripped brush and saplings.The island already has gotten rid of thousands of goats, pigs and bison that threatened its unique vegetation. Today, there are only three female goats and one shaggy pig remains in the interior. The bison population has dropped from 350 to 138, and all of the animals are on birth control.“I think we may eventually have to go to an 80 percent doe-heavy harvest to reduce the population,” Mack said.The conservancy, which owns about 90 percent of the island, is working with the California Departmentof Fish and Wildlife.Hunters normally take 350 deer a year, but that total isn’t nearly enough, according to biologists. There have been an increasing number of reports about deer eating from home gardens and walking downAvalon streets.The Los Angeles County Forestry Department shipped in the first deer in the 1930s, the same time pigs were brought from Santa Cruz Island to root out rattlesnakes. Domestic goats were turned loose bySpanish missionaries in the 1820s, and bison were imported for movies in 1924.There are no predators to thin the herds, so deer have been competing with native wildlife for about 80 years.JEFF GRITCHEN, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERThe Catalina island Conservancy is making strides in reducing its nonnative species, such as the bison, above. Officials say all of the bison are on birth control.
Newspaper Details
Long Beach Register
Long Beach, California, US
Mon, Jun 09, 2014
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Robert B.
USA 18 Apr 2025
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