Hunting the Javan Rusa Deer in Paradise By: Tony Roettger

There is a place where you can go that it seems very few Americans even know it exists. I for one, could not even pronounce it for a month. I spent a month listening to Google pronounce it for me while the kids rolled their eyes at what a moron their dad is but what can I say? The word doesn’t just roll off the tip of my tongue. Mauritius is a paradise off the coast of Madagascar where you can wake up in the morning and hear the Indian ocean breakers hitting the coral reef, drink your coffee, watch the local fishermen catch the daily fish, squid, octopus, etc. that you’re going to have for lunch or dinner later and then go snorkeling, scuba diving, swim or whatever which in my case was go chase some Javan Rusa Deer and wild boar for a day before I get back to being like “Beach Ken” and just “Beach.”

Mauritius is a relatively new country by the worlds standards as its roots are basically the British, French and Dutch fighting over whose it is for many years. When you roam around the country/island which doesn’t take too long minus the mountains you need to go up and over or around. The country is only 40 miles, by 40 miles big. For a Minnesota perspective Anoka County is 446 square miles, St. Louis County is 6,860 square miles. Mauritius is less than 1600 square miles, so the size of a medium size county in our state. The island has some strong roots with India’s Hindu’s. So quite often the food is very Indian style with a nice curry and some Naan style bread on the side. The language is a Creole’ which has that smooth, French sound with the occasional “Akk” like the Dutch.

I was introduced to Lionel from Lionel Passion Guide LTD in 2022 where I first learned that there was yet another country in Africa that you could do some hunting yet be in paradise. This is important if your partner is not interested in hunting. Offer up and all-inclusive paradise resort, waterfalls, mountains, great food and drinks, a spa, scuba, snorkeling, swim with the dolphins, giant tortoises, giant bats (flying fox), golfing, no bugs, no snakes, and a beautiful setting where the temps are almost always in the 70’s and lower 80’s and you got a winner!! And it is a less than four-hour flight from Johannesburg so you can easily add this to your African trip for a few days or whatever works for you!

Lionel is hands down the best guide on the island. He set up our ride which graciously met us as we came out of customs in Mauritius for our ride to the resort. He then followed up letting us know we should take a day to just acclimate and relax after our travels, but he would meet us for coffee in the morning to plan the week. We had planned on hunting for three to four days because bowhunting has statistically a lower success rate as he was 0 for 4 on the season for kills; not shots taken just actual harvests. I was a bit uneasy about that, but he encouraged me to help change his statistics. I was happy to try, but generally do not carry that much confidence in myself. Lionel left and Kate and I went off to hang on the beach and get acquainted with the resort in the daylight and wow what a place!

One of the other talks Lionel gave me was that these Rusa Stags duck the string. I always listen to my guide as they know things but when it comes to ducking the string, I tend to adhere to some rules of my own and that tends to work out ok. I will say Lionel insisted numerous times this fact and I will say I did listen but as you will find out later, maybe I should have listened a bit better.

Lionel came and got me at the resort so there I was walking through this nice resort in camo with a bow and arrow case in hand. The neat thing is archery is a thing in Mauritius, as there are quite a few ranges. So, we went to the range and shot my bows to make sure all was good to go. Then off we went hunting. Remember….this island is not that big and tourism is the biggest thing other than sugar cane, tea and rum, so as we drove into the golf course area it felt a little strange. I saw a fence which was intended to keep the deer off the golf course, and it seemed to be working. Turns out the golf course borders this state park area where we were going to go hunting. I did see that in the tourist stuff that there is a lot of forest area you can go and explore kind of like a state park here in the USA but you can hunt there.

We find a place to park and immediately hear the roar (like a red stag) of a Rusa Stag bellowing through this valley. So, we started climbing up and down slippery, clay like ground through palms, and what looked like bamboo, and other stuff. Crossed creeks and streams following the roars we heard. At one point we climbed this high mountain where a stag was just roaring and roaring and we got to the top, sliding, and gripping only for me to NOT be able to see it standing there at 14 yards. Ooops…. I just did not see it until it ran off. Now I was getting worried. I am hot, sweaty, and just climbed this mountain and I messed up. Not the best start. But hey….there are more Rusa around so off we went to the next group.

We crawled up and over another mountain and down on this edge to within 13 yards of a group laying up and the stag just roaring but no shot in the thick brush. So, we waited him out for 35 minutes and still no one was moving. Lionel decides to call his roaring bellow and wow! That stirred the herd all up and brought in another one that I ended up missing for a ducked string. I should have listened a bit better, but I had no idea they could duck it as well as they do. Noted…Now I have two mess ups in the morning. But hey…there are more stags around. So off we go two mountains away to where we hear another one and he is lying with a small group of hinds.

We crawl in and I am in the shadow of a tree just trying to wait for him to stand. Lionel is throwing rocks from another vantage point to get him to stand and in the end a 40 plus minute wait trying to get him up resulted in the stag bolting out of there. So now it is later in the day, and we need water. Well…I need water as it has been a long hot day so far. So, we hiked back to the truck. We have 18 kilometers of walking so far and I am thinking this is much harder than planned but SO glad I went on the stair climber at the “Y” for a couple months before this trip. This hunt is no joke for hill climbing.

We decided to pack it up for the morning (at 2PM) we decide we need some water as neither of us brought any. We got to the truck and start heading out to get some lunch. As we were driving along a mountain road we saw a stag up high with some hinds. Lionel said, “I think we can stalk that stag, let’s go try one more time.” I was up for one more!

We ditch the truck and start huffing it down a mountain first to get to the correct mountain side. We cross a river and back up and low and behold that stag stayed in that area! We crawled in to about 24 yards using a little stack of wood someone was cutting and piled up on this mountain side. I drew my bow before I crested the edge of the hill to shoot and had a small window where I could get an arrow into him without hitting the dirt of this tiered hillside and I let that arrow go! Perfect lower heart shot, the stag falls down the hill and stands up in a valley just bleeding out. Lionel is big on one shot. I wanted to put another in him, but his ways are one shot and let them die if it’s a good shot. So….we waited and watched him walk a few steps, then lay down and pass on. We had our stag! What a trip!

We hike back to the truck and drive as close as we can to the stag to make the final recovery. We take him to get all registered and off to the market for processing. We measure the antlers as both of us are SCI Certified Measurers and with SCI . The stage turned out to be the new #9 archery Javan Rusa Deer. Making it an even better day than it already was!

The hog hunt is a different story as this has already gotten long. But we did that in the evening and all our hunting was done in one day. Back to the beach and exploring the culture, views and tastes of Mauritius for Kate and I!