Hunting in the Tropical Island of Hawaii?
This past November we had the privilege of traveling to the pacific islands of Hawaii and experience an opportunity of hunting wild birds with a different twist. This trip started in early March of 2003 when our new Friends contacted us inquiring about a trained German Shorthair. Once the word of sending a dog to Hawaii hit our household, there was no turning back. Our Family was destined for a vacation and hunting trip with memories in the making. It was a learning experience for us to ship an animal to this island with their quarantines and requirements in place. The 90-day quarantines have been lifted since our visit and more animals are now being shipped to these islands. Modern simplicities of the "World Wide Web" and working with knowledgeable and patient veterinarians really helps in making this possible. Many of us read and hear of the beautiful scenery, warm weather and southern hospitality in the islands of Hawaii.Visiting the island of Maui we can testify that there is a lot more to offer then warm weather, blue skies and beachfront motels. We experienced a "world class" hunt of a lifetime! Yes, that's right, a "world class" hunt in the warm tropic islands of Hawaii! There are many reasons for such a large number of different bird species on these islands. First, there are few predators or hunting pressure and the habitat and food supply is plentiful! Imagine, no coyote's fox or hawks to prey them. No raccoon, possum, skunks or even a snake to steel eggs from their nests. Hunting pressure is limited to a season, which allows hunting only on the weekends and holidays, which helps to benefits carry over population. Food supply is plentiful with 85-degree days and vegetables, crops, flowers, and plants are grown year-a-round. Cover in this rustic grounds keeping style many due to the terrain being to rough to mow and burning carries to much risk. Chemicals are not used with all of the flowers, plants, gardens, crops and health concerns placed by the citizens on these islands. There are hunting clubs that work together to build habitat, manage bird populations and work hard to keep the availability of sharing the great outdoors with the next generation. We was fortunate to be the guest of a member of hunting club on the Haleakala Ranch, which is a 15,000 acre ranch on the largest volcano on the island of Maui. Pictures cannot explain the beauty of hunting at 6,000 feet above sea level, or the terrific endurance and fitness it takes to hunt such steep and rough terrain. We were warned prior to our trip to make sure we had good foot ware, lightweight clothing and to get in good physical shape before this event. We completely overlooked this advice about getting in shape, but cannot imaging what it would take to be conditioned for walking on rocks through thick woody brush on a 45 degree incline with the thin air at 6000+ feet above sea level when it is 85 degrees. The consistent flush of birds and awesome scenery kept us focused and was the driving force to keep us going. Prior to our trip we set goals of connecting with as many different species of birds possible in the short amount of timed allow to hunt in the 7 days we were there. One of our main focuses was to harvest a Japanese ringneck, which is solid blue in color and a white ring around the neck like our Chinese ringneck we know. We were not successful with meeting this goal, which means we will need to go back and try again (another nice note to mention is that our Family is in favor of going back as well)! We were however successful in harvesting the Chinese ringneck, black and gray francolins, chucker, and several species of dove in the three days we were allowed to hunt. Our bonus this trip was hunting and harvesting an axis deer. Our host own 1000 acres of private land, which is diversified from pasture; vegetable farms and a 600-acre fenced and managed deer hunting preserve. The farmers on these vegetable farms were happy to see us hunting their birds, because of the great damage these birds do to their crops by pecking the plants and vegetables making them non-salable. It is not everyday when you have access to all the ground you can hunt and farmers are thanking you for hunting on their ground!
We look forward to our trip back to the islands in the future to visit our new Family Friends and seek out the Japanese Ringneck. If you would like to experience a hunting trip of a lifetime, visit the islands of Hawaii. We would suggest the Parker Ranch on the big island!
Parker
Ranch
Arrow
One Ranch - Maui Deer Hunting
State
of Hawaii, Department of Land and Natural Resources
