Fallow Deer Brought to Point Reyes From the Near East and Africa

Fallow were orginally brought to Marin For Private Hunting

By Dave Mitchell
Originally published in the Point Reyes Light

Fallow deer have been fixtures of the area since 1948 when the San Francisco Zoo donated fallow and axis deer to Doc Ottinger, who created a hunting club on his ranch at the foot of Mount Vision. With the creation of the National Seashore in 1962, hunting stopped and the two deer herds swelled. Fallow deer, a species native to Near East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean, increased from 29 introduced animals to a herd of 523 by 1977.

Fallow deer have palmated antlers like a moose and a coat that varies from white to brown to black. Axis deer, a species native to India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, increased from eight animals to a herd of 461 in 1976. Axis deer have a brown-and-white spotted coat, and have been spotted grazing everywhere from the Olema Valley to the Nicasio Reservoir.

With the guidance of the Citizens Advisory Commission to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore, the Park Service in 1973 enacted an informal deer management plan. Under that plan, the park kept the herds in check with a program of regular culling. Between 1968 and 1994 rangers killed 1,388 axis deer and 1,873 fallow deer – occasionally brutally – to the chagrin of some West Marin residents. Some of the carcasses were donated to food kitchens like St. Anthony Farms in Sonoma and San Quentin State Penitentiary, while many carcasses were left to decompose where they fell. However, with the arrival of Supt. Don Neubacher in 1994, the informal management plan was suspended, and today the Park Service estimates there are about 250 axis and 860 fallow deer in the park.