Claude Mills, Staff Reporter
THE rumours are true.
There is a growing deer population in the hills of west Portland, but farmers complain that the foraging animals are costing them dearly.
Some claim that they've been forced to change the types of crops they plant because of numerous raids by the white-tailed herbivore.
"Right now, I no longer plant sweet potato, tomatoes or red peas. The reindeer love these too much. You can probably take a chance with corn, and the reindeer don't really fool around the cabbage and the cocoa," said 52-year-old farmer Chevon Anderson.
"These deer are lower grazers than cows, and even goats, and they even eat what goats don't eat, and they have been known to eat whole plots of carrot right down, everything gone," he said.
The white-tailed deer is not native to the island but was reportedly introduced to Jamaica in 1980. However, during a tropical storm, the reindeer escaped into the hills of Portland, and without natural predators, have prospered and multiplied.
In the west Portland area, deer have been spotted in the Spring Gardens Forest, Panton Forest, Mount Pleasant, Swift River, Shewsbury and sections in the vicinity of Content Road. It is a development that will fascinate nature-lovers but which has activated the alarms of environmental whistle-blowers.
"These deer have no natural predators, and no one really knows how their browsing will affect the natural habitat. The deer population could explode, and we've had problems in the past with the introduction of animals such as the mongoose," a noted environmentalist said.
Lyme disease
"We have endemic trees which never evolved in the presence of this herbivore, and could be susceptible to damage, we don't know what effect these deer have on the habitat," he said, adding that the deer may be carriers of "lyme disease which is transmitted through ticks".
No one knows how large the deer population is, but some guestimates put the figure at 250, and during the interim, the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) has adopted a "wait-and-see" attitude.
The head of the Wildlife Department declined to reveal the results of an NRCA questionnaire in the area earlier this year to ascertain just how much of a nuisance the reindeer had become. "We've been out there a couple of times, and we are assessing the damage," she said.
Meanwhile, it is what happens after the initial eurekas that concerns nature-lovers as, according to residents, hunters often come to the area periodically to hunt and trap deer on a weekly basis.
Deer meat has become an eagerly craved commodity.
Just ask Desreen Merchant, who has lived in the town of Industry for the last 10 years. A few months ago, the family dog cornered a deer, and slashed its throat, providing a meal that she will not easily forget.
"Deer meat tastes like goat but is less fatty than goat meat, and it has a red colour like beef. Once you have it one time, you always crave for more. Right now, mi long fi eat some fi all mi Christmas," she said.
Deer meat is reportedly sold at $100 per pound.
Keisha Patterson, a self-described nature lover, said: "The deer have been forced to go deeper in the woods as more and more people hunt them, and if people continue like this, there won't be many left."
According to an official at the Wildlife Department of the NRCA, deer are not protected by any local wildlife protection laws, and "if they're hunted into extinction in Jamaica, that doesn't really affect us, it can only benefit us."
However, the "expatriate" deer continue to attract attention. Sun Venture Tours hosts a fact-finding trip once a year in March-April into the hills of Portland during the full moon for the curious deer-watcher. "Most times, we see droppings and where the deer have destroyed crops, but we see the occasional deer," said a representative at Sun Venture Tours.
