Thread: Maybe need to start shooting everything we see in some areas

Originally Posted by hebe

I disagree with one aspect of your statement.
Hunters can be conservationists too. I work in biosecurity, have worked for DoC for a few years as well, and regularly volunteer trapping in the Northern Ruahines and Kawekas. To draw a line in the sand saying you’re a hunter not a conservationist ignores a lot of nuance around why people do the things they do. Some guys shoot whatever they see, others shoot bugger all. But the net effect is on the whole, positive for biodiversity. But only in the fact that a deer is dead.

But I may also be misinterpreting your statement as well.

Determining carrying capacity of an area requires informed data specific to local ecosystem type and maybe indeed by catchment. Figure out the numbers of deer currently in there the best way you can and then aim for having a lower density herd. @Gibo is right in saying that they need to be managed as a resource, but who pays and who says.

@hebe the fundamental difference in what we are saying is I was speaking in the most basic generalities and you used nuance! Perhaps a better way of looking at it is a modern affluent culture might see 'pest' animals destroying an ecosystem and be prepared to expend the time and effort into attempting to eradicate the damaging species to preserve the whole. By contrast others (for example people in desperate poverty trying to keep their family alive by hunting meat) have a huge vested interest in harvesting this meat in a long term sustainable way, or even letting the game numbers build up to provide plenty for the future. In many respects these two approaches are incompatible, which I think is why this whole discussion will always be difficult to resolve.

As an example I hand sowed 100,000 nikau seeds in a bush remnant gully about 15 or 20 years ago and had masses of palms up to about 1m high, now they are almost all gone due to the deer. Preserving long term access to venison in this gully is a very low priority for me. But at the same time a bloke on a lifestyle block down the road has allegedly been actively releasing fallow deer so he can hunt them, and has zero interest in preserving natural biodiversity. Can't keep everyone happy.