I was out bowhunting last thursday on a new piece my friend had scouted and seen good sign. I set up on a ridge they were traveling that was chock full of acorns. at about 430 I hear something approaching down an ATV trail and look over to see a dark brown/black silhouette. Having heard about them on the island before I immediately knew it was a Sika deer he came by at 32 yards and offered no shot I did manage to get a video with my phone where you can see his body. He looked like a 3x3 but not positive. I called up the DEC and asked about the regs on such an animal and was told it could be shot without permit due to it being invasive. Turns out in the 60's somebody was running an illegal outfitting service specializing in Sika deer and he ended up releasing them and they started breeding in the wild. I call it a Red deer in the video ignore that lol! Not the best video let me know what you think! http://s1010.photobucket.com/albums/af225/slayist/?action=view¤t=RedDeer.mp4
very cool video. My comp wouldn't let me go full screen though so it was hard to see. Will Sitka Deer cross breed with whitetail?
Im not sure these are actually Sika deer not Sitka. these are in the elk family and come from East asia and are larger than whitetails
Sitka with a "t" is in the Balacktail/mule deer family. You have it right, Sika without the t are from Asia. Haven't looked at the film yet, but it's cool you get to hunt free ranging exotics.
