A Maui pilot has pleaded guilty to loading deer on helicopters and flying them from Maui and the Big Island, offering a glimpse into an alleged scheme by hunters to move deer and sheep between the Hawaiian Islands to establish new game populations for their sport.Neither axis deer nor mouflon sheep -- the specific animals involved -- are native to Hawaii and don't have natural predators here. Their presence has damaged fragile native ecosystems and farms on the islands where they've become established.
The alleged animal smugglers took axis deer from Maui to the Big Island and dropped them off to roam. Officials say they took Big Island sheep to a Maui hunting ranch, but apparently didn't release them to the wild. Even so, the sheep's arrival on Maui for the first time deeply concerns conservationists who fear the animals could escape or give others the idea to bring over more.
"Some of our most endangered dry forest community on Maui would definitely be negatively impacted if sheep got established on Maui. They're already being impacted by the deer. The sheep would just be one more thing that was contributing to their demise," said Chuck Chimera, a botanist on Maui involved in efforts to fight invasive species.
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