Thread: Duck shooting - West Auckland way (Kumeu) - opportunity

Contact Auckland/Waikato Fish and game. Sometimes all is not what appears to be. Here is an example.

I was contacted a few years ago by a 'lifestyler' who raised domestic ducks for sale on his property. He made a good living from gate sales for birds and duck eggs etc but was overrun by mallards which were camped out on his property, especially at feeding time. He also had 'problems' with diseases being introduced to his domestic ducks by wild birds.
A quick inspection showed on the face of it that there were large numbers of mallards which had taken up permanent residence. When I asked him to show me how he fed his domestic birds he simply let his domestic birds out of their pens then scattered large quantities of feed by hand over the paddock next to the pens. It then became a competition between the wild and domestic ducks for food. I then suggested to him that the problem was easily solvable by feeding his birds while they were in their pens and that denying the wild birds a free feed would soon result in the problem birds heading for greener pastures.

He got pissed off and told me I didnt know what I was talking about.......( I have been a Wildlife ranger for the past 40 yrs). I politely but firmly told him that I would not recommend a permit being issued until he had tried less lethal methods of solving the problem. He eventually came around and changed his feeding methods and the mallards departed. When I contacted F&G and explained the situation and the 'solution' I found out that he had already been spoken to after making numerous requests for a cull permit, and had been refused for the above reasons.
I also noted that he was surrounded by other 'lifestylers' who all had horses on their properties which would have created a nightmare ( no pun intended) if a cull was to be carried out..............