Sika Deer?

Looks like a Good One!!

It does look like a sika deer. I have some fallow deer in my area. I know the guy the fallow deer escaped from, back in the eighties.

Keith

Yeah, that's a nice one too. Should be some hinds there as well then. They are the best eating deer walking.




BTW: now is near the peak of the rut for them and he should have a wallow or several there.

I'd like to hunt Sikas one day.They're not too far from me.I saw a fallow buck one day crossing the road near where I hunted.Was neat seeing it.I know who it escaped from but it was wild.

Are the then considered-shoot anytime because of being invasive?

There was one wandering around here a few years ago, game and parks made a point of saying it was illegal to shoot it because our deer permits are just generic "deer" permits, they're whitetail or mule deer permits, making sika and fallow deer illegal to shoot. Check with your game and parks dept.

He's fair game.

No.

They should be...cull anytime they're seen so they dont breed, or consume the habitat from a Native species.

I think we are too late for that.

Same corn pile.




Here are some trees they've been rubbing.

Are they the same as the asian deer that are in Southeast asia and the Island offshore there? From souther Japan down. the antlers look the same......jk

I don't know how much they may compete with whitetails. I'm guessing not so much. Sika (a type of elk) are grazers, while Whitetails are browsers. Each will vary from their diet, but the majority of their diet behaviors are quite different.
I have gutted many sikas and whitetails in the late fall on the same refuge and the body fat in the sikas was phenomenal, while body fat was nonexistent in the whitetails.
I have taken several whitetails from a nearby area with very similar habitat which lacked sikas (geographically separated) and they did not have any body fat to speak of either.
This leads me to believe that both areas were lacking in suitable whitetail browse vegetation, while there was plenty of grazing vegetation available for sikas to thrive.

Anyone know how difficult it would be for a non resident to find a place to hunt Sika deer? Preferably archery hunt them without a guide?

Plenty of state land with sika deer populations. 5-10 minute drive from Salisbury. Plenty of lodging available, short on taverns and such but you can't have everything.

Don't they mostly live out on the Salt Marsh and phragmite's?

I think you might be thinking of something like sambar or rusa deer.
I was on a little island near the Cambodia /Thailand border a few years ago that was crawling with deer. Definitely not sika deer, some sort of sambar or rusa, they were little guys, maybe 80 pounds.

Thank you, I will start looking into it further.

I guess population has pushed them to higher ground.

I have read that the Sika deer we have here did originate in Japan.I'd love to hunt them myself.Have never hunted the public land where they are.

That's a nice one.
Best I ever saw was a TALL 8 pt, checked in in Church Creek in the late 70s.
Mason's Market maybe? Was 86 lb.
Was a 101 lb spike killed at Assateague MANY years ago too.

Sad to say, my first experience with sika scared me to death. 1970s, young kid, my uncle left me in a stand in the dark (Crapo) and 10 minutes after he left I started hearing God awful noises all around me. Cheap metal Radio Shack flashlight went ON but only lit up the clouds of bugs getting ready to eat me!
More screaming from the dark.

I had never heard of sika deer, much less HEARD a sika deer. My uncle laughed so hard when he came back I thought he was going to die! My cousin STILL laughs about it.

Blackwater NWR, and CFL lands have some decent spots but getting too popular these days. Half of PA is there.

Don't you guys have enough WT deer that someone had to let a semi-nasty looking exotic go...? At least they are better looking than those Euro roe bucks. Sorry, Pyrenees Pete, not my thing unless it was the only game in town. Then I'd be for knocking some over...

They are DELICIOUS!!!

You guys in Virginia have them too...!?