deer swimming in Hawaiian Bay

[Arizona Docent]

Deer pulled to safety in Maui surf - Video on TODAY.com

This home video shows a tourist couple rescuing a tired deer (appears to be a sika deer?) swimming in the bay in Hawaii. According to the MSNBC announcer - whose script writers clearly do not know that deer are NOT native to Hawaii - the deer ran "back into the wild."

My question is this: are there feral deer living in Hawaii's forests? If not, then where did this deer come from?

 

[Ituri]

There is a large population of axis deer living wild on Maui.

 

[Arizona Docent]

Thanks for the answer. Axis deer it is (not sika). Of course now everyone will think they are native because the ill informed video editors at MSNBC said it was released back to the wild.

 

[Ituri]

Well technically it was. Feral can only appropriately be applied to domestic species. Exotic introduced species aren't feral, they're wild (whether they belong there or not).