Thread: Tahr Update from Doc

Originally Posted by Lucky

Mr Reddiex Tahr update is full of numbers that looks like there is some science behind it , where the hell do those numbers come from , and they are going to let recreational hunters know where to find animals after the Cull , I call Bullshit to all of it !

Another interesting thing , try and find a map on the DOC site that shows you the boundary's of Mt Cook and Westland National Parks .

There was a series of areas set up for a study in the 90's which have had sporadic measuring of the tussock heights over the years. Its not particularly scientific and hasn't had much in the way of analysis vs density numbers or external control samples. It does have some relevance though, it shows an approximately 10% decrease in overall tussock height in the period from 1990 - 2010 vs areas without tahr grazing. Hardly drastic and worrying numbers. the decrease is linear following the non linear increase in tahr numbers showing that tussocks only deteriorate with growing populations of tahr, and also show a level of resilience to grazing pressure(logic dictates decreases in overall height should follow the non linear growth in tahr numbers if no resilience to grazing pressure is present. a 30% reduction in numbers with work to stabilize those numbers should return a flattening of this degradation of tussock heights.

They still haven't got a single piece of data on anything other than tussock, which is laughable given the edicts required in the HTCP