One must go back down memory lane to find the first traces of deer hunting in Mauritius. Although one can also hunt wild boar, hares, bats, guinea fowls or partridges, the deer remains, by far, the “Royal prey” of hunting in the island.

We owe the introduction of the deer to the very early Dutch settlers. After the extinction of the dodo, these early settlers introduced the deer as well as poultry, rabbits, pigeons and sheep to the island as a substitute for their livelihood. Soon the deer were to reproduce and many left in the wild, took the very dense forests around, thus proliferating on a large scale. It is said that the first consignment of these live animals arrived on board the Cappel, which was Governor Van der Stel’ vessel, in November 1639.

From then on, the deer has been hunted in Mauritius. However, as time went by, the organization and management of hunting in the island has been literally perfected to an art form. Today, around 3,000 hunters split into several “chassées” (hunting domains) control the whole 80,000 heads of stock spread in the interior mountainous areas of Mauritius. We hasten to add that hunting is not only a sport for some of the thousands of hunters to enjoy, but has become, over the years, a necessity as the herds must absolutely be kept under control. Every season therefore sees a very strict quota of deers being allocated to each hunter of every club for the “culling”. This also helps to control the deer population, which if they go out of hand, could easily destroy the pastures where they breed through overpopulation.