Thread: The state of pest populations in NZ

Despite the council poisoning the crap out of my possum area they are back. Apparently rabbits too. I think the explosion of lifestyle blocks populated by tree hugers is probably having the biggest impact as they don't shoot, poison or trap.

As far as deer go I think you have two extremes, although speaking generally as different all over country. Where land is able to be publicly accessible and hunting allowed numbers get hammered and deer are far more cunning and nocturnal to survive.

On restricted areas of forrest blocks and farms excellent numbers and the deer are way dumber. In these areas owners and managers will also rather cull than let people in due to the hassle unfortunately.
Its also a reflection of how society has changed in NZ about trusting one another.

So feast or famine it seems.

Originally Posted by WallyR

@gilly
Next door neighbour (fit, young and keen), has been out down around Ocean Beach and a few of the gullies running up into the Park there.
Reckons next time, the 270 will got some exercise, as he too has seen quite a few mobs around that area.
I need a quad bike and then I'll do my bit there with the 308.
Unfortunately, the 6.5 x 55 ammo that you dropped off to me, never got used as other things cropped up and the rifle under consideration never got bought.
So it's still available for a non-CM fanboy to use.

CM?


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Yes it's certainly possible to shoot a deer on public land but usually takes a fair amount of effort. If like me you are busy with young family and work it's not easy just to take a week off. So if you don't have private land contacts this pretty much puts deer off the menu. Apart from possums and the occasional goat my main shooting activity was service rifle...

You don't need to take a week off to get a deer. I don't have any private land deer hunting spots on private land but still do alright.
I would prefer to earn my venison anyway so paddock deer don't interest me.

Originally Posted by Phil_H

One other reason, I have come to realise, why farmers are wary of letting people on to their property is Work Safe and public liability. The farm that I have access to, I believe, is really on a knifes edge financially, and the owner is scared that any accident on his property that could attract a large fine from Work Safe would sink him.

He has a very strict rule with me and that is I go there alone. His reasoning is if there is only one person, less chance of anyone getting shot. Then the other issue is poachers. There are plenty of those around in this area and I have even come across some running about the paddocks in a quad late at night. In times gone past the farmer used to let the odd young chap in to cull some deer but his comment was something to the effect that if you give permission the wrong person suddenly you seem to have given permissions to half of the local pub.

Cheers
Phil

This is very true Phil. I know a guy who used to allow people access through his place to get to a good surfing spot. It did not take long before it became seen locally as a free access right to everybody. My mate was not too stressed about that (or anything else to be fair) but when the surfers started shooting wild goats as well he became a bit less enthusiastic... he was farming goats at the time and the difference between farmed and feral is sometimes subjective. One bad experience wrecks it for everyone. Then add the liability potential and there often seems little motivation to allow shooters in, unless we know them really well and built up sufficient trust. Even then, something goes wrong and it's us farmers who get the blame.

This thread has opened my eyes to the danger of secondary poisoning from venison. So a 70kg human needs to eat 50kg of pestoff pellets to hit the LD50 rate, so in reality the amount of brodifacoum eaten via venison is likely to be very low (most accumulates in the liver), but being a long lasting cumulative poison who knows what the health impact might be. So it's still a real issue, knowing this, if I let someone shoot my feral deer in a strict PCA I might be liable for poisoning them too.

Originally Posted by NZAlpine

Heard plenty of talk that wallaby numbers are getting out of control already


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Wallabies are spreading, saw one bowled over on the road near burke's pass a couple months back. Old man does heaps of work on them but it's a never ending battle, toon a couple thousand off a big station up near Omarama a while back but Doc didnt want to stump up the money to have an adjacent Doc block done... pretty disheartening to come back and find hundreds of them on the station again as they filter back out from the Doc land. The opposite is often true also, will do a Doc block and nearby farmers dont want to have them done and it's almost a waste of time. Doc and farmers really need to start working together to make any headway on these problems, same goes for rabbits in Otago.
Red deer are in pretty good numbers in places also, dad got asked to "knock any deer over on the crop paddocks" on one place back in winter while he was doing wallabies as apparently there was "one or two about"....... after the first night he got a chiller truck out from local heli operators and ended up with about 60 deer in it just ground shooting over the next few nights, this is South Canterbury down to around Central Otago area hes operating.
The other day I nearly ran off the road as I drove past the golf course in Roxburgh, there was literally thousands of rabbits on it!
One thing I havent seen much of lately around here is possums, have literally seen one possum that's basically tame anyhow and hangs out in our workshop and that's it the whole time we have been down here (west otago) havent seen any at all in pine plantations around the place.

Certainly does seem to be far more rabbits and hares around this year. I'm chilling by the lake in Motuoapa as I write this and the buggers are everywhere.

The powers that be could do a lot.more to promote hunting of small game. Its a shit load of fun, can be really good chewing and helps keep things in check.

I personally would love to do more small game hunting but have zero access to suitable areas. I've got 2 hungry dogs that would happily make use of about as many rabbits as I could shoot.

Originally Posted by gilly

Just been having a few Xmas beers with my boys. They reckon on one day out pig hunting on private land in the Wairarapa this year they saw over 200 deer. The biggest mob being about 50. Now I realise they are only 18 and prone to exaggeration but this is pretty common thread whenever they go out for a hunt. Two nights ago they saw 25 in a block of cutover pine forest. They shot one each but could have shot more. They are privileged in terms of the access they get but there are way too many deer. The landowners can’t keep the numbers down. One of them has admitted to this but for some reason is highly protective of them. The only way you can reduce numbers in these areas IMO is by thinning them out by chopper.

It's not fiction, if anything your boys ran out of fingers and toes before they ran out of deer.
Areas of the east coast have seen steady rises in deer populations over the last 7 or so years. It's not uncommon to see them on the road out of masterton during the day in some places, and Eastbourne gardeners I believe have them in the back yard further south.
Forestry is undoubtedly assisting the increase but other factors such as a natural resistance to letting armed strangers on to your land and fear, of prosecution if accidents do occur and a "selfish" mindset are also involved.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

It's not fiction, if anything your boys ran out of fingers and toes before they ran out of deer.
Areas of the east coast have seen steady rises in deer populations over the last 7 or so years. It's not uncommon to see them on the road out of masterton during the day in some places, and Eastbourne gardeners I believe have them in the back yard further south.
Forestry is undoubtedly assisting the increase but other factors such as a natural resistance to letting armed strangers on to your land and fear, of prosecution if accidents do occur and a "selfish" mindset are also involved.

Yeah, we're 100km N of you and it seems everywhere in between has the same problem. I had no deer at all until about 5 years ago. A guy I met who farmed at Porongahau said he had none and then suddenly they were there, and then there were masses all over a short period. It's got potential to become serious, and the firearms law changes will make it worse. Maybe if every farmer from Wellington to East Cape applied for P someone might start to get the point.

Can't help this comment, but who on this earth is given the authority to class a animal as a pest, all here for a reason.

Originally Posted by tetawa

Can't help this comment, but who on this earth is given the authority to class a animal as a pest, all here for a reason.

Has something to do with bring an introduced species you will find

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Well - I gone back to the old fashion way of trapping
Turn over turf - nestle trap in 50-75mm hole approx spade squared
I use a piece of shade cloth over - then sprinkle dirt over that - paper or Dock leaf will do too

Rabbits go to fresh turned turf instantly evey night
Had 2 out of 2 sets - last two nights
Bloody modern Poison etc - prob all BS as it aint reduced # here
Prob just makn then breed faster and get fatter

[QUOTE=HNTMAD;934995]Has something to do with bring an introduced species you will find

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Fare enough, but the original inhabitants who ate the foliage here were annihilated, these are here now just do the same job.

[QUOTE=tetawa;935004]

Originally Posted by HNTMAD

Has something to do with bring an introduced species you will find

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Fare enough, but the original inhabitants who ate the foliage here were annihilated, these are here now just do the same job.

Well they weren't brought here for that, they were brought here as gifts and sport for the rich folk

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