No – not an alien life-form from outer space, or refugees from a neighbouring country, or a genetic experiment gone wrong, but by a relative of Bambi, the white-tailed deer which now poses a major threat to farming communities in the parish of Portland and parts of St. Thomas and St. Andrew.
This animal population which is native to North, Central and South America is now estimated at 6,000 strong and growing rapidly because of the ideal tropical conditions and the lush vegetation which allows them to feed and propagate all year round. Unrestrained and unchecked, this growing deer population constitutes a medium-term threat to the environment but more urgently is an immediate threat by virtue of the significant loss they are causing to farmers in the affected parishes as they forage on domestic crops.
Venison or deer meat is completely alien to the Jamaican diet and so it is unlikely to find its way on to Jamaican tables any time soon unlike the lion fish invasion of a few years ago that was seen to pose a threat to marine life and the welfare of fisher folk. The lion fish was systematically targeted and appears to have been brought under control if not eliminated, but not before Jamaicans developed a taste for it and converted it for commercial sale.
Evidence that the deer invasion is seen as a real threat has come in the form of a declaration of ‘open season’ on hunting the deer by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) giving game bird hunters the freedom to actively hunt the deer throughout the current bird shooting season and beyond. Hunters will delight in the fact that while there are limits on the number of birds which may be shot during the season which runs from August 19 to September 23, there are no limits on the number of animals that may be ‘bagged’ and no designated season when they may be hunted.
Jamaica has very few wild game animals with the exception of the wild pig which can be found in the mountains of Portland and St. Thomas and which is hunted with impunity by private individuals and groups in that part of the island but not made available commercially. Jamaica’s mountainous interior was overrun with pigs from those introduced by the Spaniards and was a source of food for the Maroons the runaway enslaved. It is the curing and cooking process developed by the Maroons which was later to become popularized as jerk cuisine.
Opinions vary as to the origin of the deer in the mountains of Portland, St Andrew and St Thomas but it is believed that they are descendants from the ones that were said to have escaped from the Hope Zoo in St Andrew during Hurricane ‘Gilbert’ in 1988. With the Jamaican ingenuity of ‘turnin hand to make fashion’ we may well see the current aversion to venison converted and popularized in similar fashion as jerk if not for local consumption but for the visitor and export market!
