PSDCF is a self funded conservation organisation based in Melbourne Australia and operate its fieldwork activities in northwest Panay Island Philippines.

The idea of establishing a conservation foundation for the Spotted Deer was the result of the lifelong 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.

 

 

Renee Galang was born in Manila, Philippines in 1970. He grew up in metropolitan Manila studied elementary and high school in local public school. In 1988 he migrated to Australia to live and continue his education. He conferred his Ba of Education in Environmental Science from Melbourne University in 1994. Initially he worked as a University tutor followed by 8 years of full time University lecturer in various Universities in Melbourne specialising in biological, botanical, zoological, ecological and micro-biological subjects. Early in 2000 he embarked on study of Master of Environmental Science in the field of Conservation Biology and Biodiversity at Melbourne University. He conferred his Masteral degree in 2005. In 2004 during his fieldwork with the critically endangered Spotted Deer in the central Panay mountain ranges, Panay Island Philippines he developed an idea of establishing a foundation to focus on the conservation of this threatened species and its habitat. In April 2005 during one of his fieldworks he discovered a new species of a parasitic plant now named and scientifically recognize as Rafflesia lobata. The species description was a collaborative work with the Philippine National Museum. A sequel scientific article authored solely by Renee was published in 2006 regarding the study of known populations of this new species. Renee is continuing his fieldwork studies and endeavouring to convince the local authorities to proclaim his fieldwork site as a “Critical Habitat” protected area due to the presence of many critically endangered species like the Spotted deer, Writhed-billed hornbill, Tarrictic hornbill, Visayan warty pig and a very charismatic new Rafflesia lobata species. Renee described himself as a Filipino-Australia and is fluent in Tagalog and English.