The
Philippine Spotted Deer Conservation Foundation
Director/Public officer: Renee Galang
1st of July 2004
The idea of establishing a conservation foundation for the Spotted Deer
was the result of the life long commitment that I have imposed to myself
to assist in the conservation of this threatened species. At present
the main conservation effort being done for this species is through
captive breeding. This practice is vital in getting to know the biology
of the animal and it presumably guarantees the survival of the species
in captivity if it happens to become extinct in the wild. However, this
captive breeding practice is barbaric because it bastardise the animal.
It heavily relies on the premise that once a suitable site for release
is found the captive animal will be “softly released” and
it will inevitably become wild again. I strongly believe that this idea
is a highly simplified wishful thinking.
The practice and process of domestication and captive breeding are identical.
In Australia, many domesticated animals (and plants) have become wild
when they have been released either deliberately (like the “Brumbies”,
horses that previously owned by Mr. Brumby that he set free, the one
humped camel that were set free after they have been used as beast of
burdens when the train tracks were built from Adelaide to Perth) or
accidentally (the rest of pest plants and animals that are living freely
in Australia). These species have become wild mainly because of the
two forces: First, Australian land is MASSIVE, animals can roam freely
and escape hunters. Secondly, the hunting pressure is done by predominantly
few recreational hunters. These two forces combined with time have resulted
in having large populations of wild introduced animals and plants in
Australia. These critical factors unfortunately do not exist in the
Philippines. The jungle is highly fragmented and in relatively small
patches, and the hunting culture is still being practice by many. Ex-captive
animals are therefore will become an easy prey for hunters because they
will not have enough time to become wild in a shrinking and isolated
jungle.
It is clear that captive breeding of the spotted deer has limited purpose.
Softly releasing captive deer in the future is bound to fail because
the deer will not have the survival skills because they have been bastardized
for generations. By the same token, educating hunters that hunting is
prohibited by law will have little effect. Banning hunting altogether
means that the hunting culture is identified as “bad” and
people should be cleansed off it. It will be a form of cultural cleansing
performed by conservationists.
My solution to this problem is that we can use hunters to capture wild
animals and trans-locate with the use of helicopter to a suitable location,
such as in the North-West Panay peninsula. This protected area is known
to have population of the deer but my preliminary survey of the area
in January 2004 tentatively concluded that the deer may have been locally
extinct in the peninsula. However, in the northern section of the central
Panay Mountain Ranges, the deer still exist in relatively healthy population
of 11 to 14 individuals in my April 2004 survey. My expedition fieldwork
in 2005 and 2006 produced result of an increasing deer population in
the area. This area therefore is a great candidate for extraction of
a few individuals for trans-location in the peninsula.
But before we can do this, we need to know the basic requirements of
the deer in the wild (which is my main aim for performing observation
of the deer in the wild since 2004) and develop a stringent procedure
in trans-locating with minimal stress to the animal.
The main advantage of trans-locating wild deer is that once the translocation
has been performed, the animals can be “hard released”.
These animals will have the survival skills like food to eat, where
to wallow, and most importantly how to react with humans. It will know
that humans are hunters and avoid close contact with them! Thus hunters
will have to have supreme hunting ability to be able to successfully
hunt the wild released animals. Softly released animals are easy target
for hunters and accidental hunters.
The monetary costs involve in trans-locating wild animals will be considerably
cheaper than having a captive breeding program. The costs of taking
a few wild animals in their local population may actually induce breed
because it free more space and resources in their population.
Hunting pressure can realistically only be reduced but not eliminated.
For those people that has the hunting skills can be employed to monitor
the progress of released deer. Ultimately, a hunting program can be
devised to allow limited and controlled hunting. I see this as an important
feature of the management of the species. My raison de etat to allow
controlled limited hunting is firstly to reduce the deer population
if the population is assessed to be above the carrying capacity of the
peninsula. This practice is vital in natural resource management of
an isolated vegetation patch in the peninsula. Secondly to continue
the hunting cultural practice. Let’s not forget that humans have
been hunting deer since the early time. Humans and deer are two species
that have been interacting in the complex interactions of life on earth.
The foundation will continue work with the spotted deer indefinitely.
So far it has been productive in that it has produced the booklet titled
“A Critical Review of Wildlife Conservation in the Philippines”
which was published in 2004. In 2005, the foundation discovered a new
species of the iconic tropical rainforest conservation genus Rafflesia.
The species is named Rafflesia lobata. The species description is published
in Folia Malaysiana in October 2006. These two publications are great
successes of the foundation and it has just begun.
Donations
to the PSDCF are welcome. To find out more about making a donation,
click here.
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