Destructive and delicious: how an invasive deer in Hawaii is being turned into dinner

The overpopulation of axis deer has taken an environmental toll, but Maui Nui Venison sees it as a resource instead of a pest In 1868, the government of Hong Kong gave eight axis deer to Hawaii’s King Kamehameha V. They were a beautiful gift, these creatures that hail from south Asia, with their honey-colored pelts marked by a smattering of white spots. But their incursion into Maui started much later, in the 1950s, when they were brought to the island for recreational hunters. Now, more than a…