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A Sitka black-tailed deer stands in its enclosure after it had been moved from Sitkinak Island to the southern end of the Kenai Peninsula as part of an Alaska Department of Fish and Game introduction effort aimed at establishing a reproducing population on the peninsula in 2025. (Photo provided by Alaska Department of Fish and Game) <\/p>\n
Last fall, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game brought 19 Sitka black-tailed deer from an island near Kodiak to the bottom of the Kenai Peninsula as part of an effort<\/a> to see how the animals would fare.<\/p>\n Not well, it turned out. <\/p>\n At least 13 of the deer died. Another one slipped out of its GPS collar, and the department isn\u2019t sure if it survived. Of the original stock, just five \u2014 two does and three bucks \u2014 are known to still be alive, according to an update<\/a> on the program published Tuesday.<\/p>\n It is the state of Alaska\u2019s first attempt in 40 years to relocate deer to establish a new population, according to Cynthia Wardlow, Southcentral regional supervisor for the Division of Wildlife Conservation, and it\u2019s the first such effort in the southern Kenai Peninsula. <\/p>\n Despite the grim mortality rate, the state intends to try again, and is \u201cplanning to move an additional 15-20 deer this fall, primarily does, to supplement the remaining animals,\u201d according to Fish and Game\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal of this is to provide hunting opportunity and food security for Alaskans,\u201d Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said in the Tuesday update. <\/p>\n Critics say the program is a waste of public money, particularly given how few animals survived their first winter after the relocation, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the animals are ever made available for hunting, it will be in limited numbers decades in the future, critics argue.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t support this project and think there are far better ways for the state to be supporting food security,\u201d said Cooper Freeman, Alaska director for the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group. <\/p>\n His group obtained internal department documents about the program several months ago through a Public Records Act request that showed the true mortality rate among the deer was higher than reported. Even before 19 deer were released near Port Chatham last fall, four of them died in the transportation process from Sitkinak Island.<\/p>\n \u201cThe deaths were attributed to prolonged sedation time,\u201d according to a mortality report<\/a> submitted by Department of Fish and Game staff last October and shared with the Daily News by the Center for Biological Diversity, and confirmed by Fish and Game.<\/p>\n According to the department\u2019s August update, the animals that did make it to the Kenai Peninsula died from several causes: drownings, coyote attack, disease, hypothermia. One of the does \u201cswam to a nearby island and lived there for almost two months according to collar data,\u201d Fish and Game said in the update. <\/p>\n Throughout its materials on the program, Fish and Game says the habitat overall is a good fit, with adequate food for the deer. Their determination is that the high mortality was driven by the severity of last winter, which included abnormally cold weather and deep snow in the southern Kenai Peninsula.<\/p>\n \u201cThe (deer) we recovered that were deceased were in good condition, they weren\u2019t experiencing malnutrition,\u201d Wardlow said in an interview last week.<\/p>\n Though the majority of the original animals died within a year of being captured and moved, Fish and Game will repeat the relocation effort in the coming weeks. <\/p>\n Mixed record on relocations<\/p>\n Moving animals around in the hopes of establishing self-sustaining populations of prey species like deer in new places has a long history in Alaska<\/a>. Among the efforts tried by territorial and state officials \u2014 some successful, others not \u2014 were bringing Sitka black-tailed deer to Prince William Sound, Kodiak, Yakutat, Skagway and the Homer Spit. <\/p>\n The prospect of transporting deer to the southern Kenai Peninsula to establish a huntable population goes back to at least the 1970s, according to a 2023 scoping report<\/a> produced ahead of Fish and Game\u2019s inaugural attempt last year. <\/p>\n \u201cThe primary benefits of the transplant are to increase hunting opportunities and wildlife viewing. If the transplant is successful, then based on prior transplants of (Sitka black-tailed deer) it would likely be two or more decades before a harvestable surplus exists,\u201d according to the document. <\/p>\n The document states that Fish and Game staff developed the scoping report in response to a request from Gov. Mike Dunleavy that came down through Vincent-Lang. Dunleavy\u2019s administration considered a similar deer relocation concept<\/a> for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, but it did not advance to implementation.<\/p>\n There\u2019s never been a large, permanent deer population in the area, despite having environmental and climatological conditions similar to other parts of coastal Alaska, where the animals have done well. As the scoping report notes, the deer fare poorly in exceptionally cold and snowy winters, but thrive and expand their range after milder ones. <\/p>\n Wardlow said that was starting to happen after the 19 animals were relocated to a central release area by helicopter over a few days last fall. <\/p>\n \u201cThe deer have traveled in different directions from the point that we dropped them off,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n The habitat appears to suit the species, she said. But the department could not have anticipated or prevented the exceptionally cold winter, she said, which likely killed other deer populations across coastal Alaska at comparable rates. Unlike those other populations, though, these 19 were tracked with GPS collars, so there\u2019s data from them available to researchers. <\/p>\n She said the Department of Fish and Game is optimistic that by adding more animals to the ongoing effort, it will result in a deer population that breeds enough to sustain itself, provided the approaching winter is not as harsh as last year\u2019s. <\/p>\n Deer mortality report<\/p>\n To Freeman at the Center for Biological Diversity, deer relocation is a waste of money at a time when Fish and Game, like many other segments of state government, doesn\u2019t have sufficient resources to carry out its basic work. <\/p>\n He said the project fits a pattern under the Dunleavy administration of spending money on wildlife management programs aimed at increasing limited hunting opportunities<\/a> for small groups of users, which has included aggressive predator control efforts<\/a> to boost caribou and moose numbers in other parts of Alaska. His organization, Freeman said, is not uniformly against game relocation efforts, pointing to state programs reintroducing musk oxen and wood bison to native ranges in Western Alaska as worthwhile. But the center does not support trying to build a new population of animals in places where there\u2019s scant record of them previously living just to meet human desires for hunting or wildlife viewing. <\/p>\n \u201cOur focus is on protecting imperiled species and wildlife and the habitat they need to survive and thrive,\u201d Freeman said by phone Tuesday from his house in Homer, across Kachemak Bay from the mountainous tail of the peninsula where the deer were released. <\/p>\n At a purely fiscal level, Freeman said, the program is a bad use of resources. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/QCP6E4INQVETNIMGJHRTDW46CU.jpg\")
A Sitka black-tailed deer lies in its enclosure after it had been moved from Sitkinak Island to the southern end of the Kenai Peninsula as part of an Alaska Department of Fish and Game introduction effort aimed at establishing a reproducing population on the peninsula in 2025. (Photo provided by Alaska Department of Fish and Game) <\/p>\n