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*I was recently on St. John Island and walked around the old sugar mill. I happen to to see a deer cross the road. I was very surprised and did not expect to see one on an island. Approximately how many deer inhabit the island? Do you know how they got to St. John? Please give me any information on this as my husband refused to believe that I am correct about this sighting.
Yes you did see a deer. There are quite a few out on great St James, And thath cay, and cabrita point on Stt. I see them swiming back and forth from stt to the barrier islands. have been told the mate on the barrier island. They were all brought here. Have heard that the only mammal that was here before columbus was the bat.
Here is a quote from the flora and fauna section of this website:
Deer
There is a small deer population in the Virgin Islands. The white tailed deer was brought to the islands by colonist in the late 1700's for hunting purposes. They are a shy, solitary animal. Occasionally they are sighted in the National Park on St. John, in densely forested areas of St. Croix and on the East End of St. Thomas.
Lisa in CT
I don't know about being solitary animals. I have seen them
in with a heard of goats more than once out in Coral Bay.
When we went on the Reef Bay Trail hike, the park ranger said that, long ago, a pair of deer had been given to a resident of the island as a gift from someone in Europe. (Sorry, can't remember the details.) They escaped their pen during a hurricane and now run wild. The Park Service is trying (or maybe just wanting) to remove them from the island along with other non-native animals like the donkey and mongoose.
We see them all the time around our house on STX. When the mangos are ripe, they reach up and eat the fruit right off the trees.
We saw 3 last week on the drive from Coral Bay to Cruz Bay 🙂
Driving out to Latitude 18 on the East end of STT a couple of weeks ago, a little after dusk, a suprisingly large buck with full antlers stood in the middle of the road staring at me before quietly disappearing into the bush. It was a beautiful sight. There's quite a large population in that area.
I came accross this article on History of Deer on St. Croix... http://webpac.uvi.edu/imls/np%5Fuvi/odavis1997/environment/deer.shtml.
--Islander
