Thread: Deer and 1080 puzzle

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Ive seen a big buck possum sitting beside a gin trap and "directing traffic" around it.....the .22lr sorted out that issue...
animals arent dumb...even sheep can "learn" what is good and what isnt.

What about People

Originally Posted by Sarvo

I (and local farmer/hunters) saw a "marked" drop in Deer #
Especially in the higher levels likes of the Hauhungaroa Range zone

Mind you I am talking in the 1980's early 1st drops - I think in latter drops the Deer have become wise/shyer to it

Always notice the drop in numbers after a drop. Less sign and browsing, unless they have moved elsewhere but never noticed any mobs migrating.

Originally Posted by Cordite

I thought they were not meant to target deer with 1080. Also, were they not starting to put deer repellent in?

It's a cruel death, and users of 1080 for pest control rely on a special exemption in the animal cruelty act to avoid getting charged with causing deliberate animal suffering.

The repellant is just meat meal or dried blood. That is a relatively cheap product to add ( don't believe the 'repellant is todear BS)One difficulty is that post BSE and CWD it is illegal to feed ruminant derived protein to ruminant livestock - meat meal was used in calf and stud stock rations in the past. I guess the fact that it is acting as a repellant in the pellets negates that compliance issue.
I would suggest that the deer are more conspicuous because they have come out of the blow fly riddled stench of the bush into the open post drop.

It's not due to less hunters going in those areas 'cos they know it's been poisoned?

Originally Posted by nightowl52

It's not due to less hunters going in those areas 'cos they know it's been poisoned?

Maybe less hunters with a dog, going back. I never took my dogs back for 12 months.

I have very little hands on experience of this. The only area I have actively been involved in - and made observations and in with my own eyes - was a DOC block in the Ruapehu District in Nov 2017. Hunted it immediately before the drop, watched the drop in action from a nearby high point, continued hunting the affected block and the blocks (native, scrub and farm margins) immediately after.

I did not see a reduction in deer, pig or goat numbers. Pigs move, with the seasons, and at that time of the year they were mostly still in the bush on the berries during the day, and rooting the cleared scrubby farmland margins at night. Their numbers did not appear to drop. Deer (red and fallow) were as plentiful as ever. Goats were harder to judge, because we were hammering them at the time due to their affect on recent manuka plantings (honey).

So a very small sample, the only one I have personal experience of. 1080 made bugger all difference to our deer hunting.

I do not have a position on 1080, either way, I am totally conflicted and rather pathetically confused about it. So not trying to promote a view one way or the other.

Originally Posted by Sarvo

I think in latter drops the Deer have become wise/shyer to it

sorta what i was thinking ...along with less hunting pressure with guys not harvesting after a drop

Originally Posted by scotty

sorta what i was thinking ...along with less hunting pressure with guys not harvesting after a drop

Why would you harvest poisoned meat??? You might of course shoot the deer to relieve suffering.

Originally Posted by Cordite

Why would you harvest poisoned meat??? You might of course shoot the deer to relieve suffering.

probably didnt provide enough info in my post should have added some will just say "nah not going there it gets hammered with 1080" even long after the safe to harvest date...which gives the population a chance to bounce back.
used to hunt straight after the drops with a young fella ...... it was always treated as a training exercise for him....to hone his skills if we come across a sick deer we had already preplanned thats all we would shoot to put it out of its misery. healthy looking deer we would leave for the future......having said that i do know of a DOC ranger who was harvesting meat during the no harvest period (not for research either)

Originally Posted by Cordite

Why would you harvest poisoned meat??? You might of course shoot the deer to relieve suffering.

I wont worry too much about waiting for the full ""ïts all clear"date after a 1080 drop. Deer dont take well to 1080 at all, after eating a small dose they dead within a short period take a day or 3. After heavy rain, esp after couple of times and a month or so any deer looking ok will so unlikely have 1080 posioning, little alone enough to harm you i be happy to harvest and eat with no problem .
That latest Landcare research study is the most properganda BS i have seen written in a long time.
Clearly trying to say theres quote ""no evidence of even short term negative effects of aerial 1080 ops on numbers of deer encounters and deer seen"" unquote.
Reading it you nearly believe 1080 actually increases the amount of deer(must somehow produce deer out of thin air)
This is of cause from people that are looking for rats and birds, and record encounters of deer. If a bush moves and they hear a noise in the scrub it prob is a deer so it gets recorded. One deer prob gets seen 10 times from different people, gets recorded as ten instead of one.
Its a joke, its written to con the pro 1080 and the brainless that 1080 is doing nothing to deer numbers, but, shit, it increasing them at worst haha.
Shame on who wrote that BS, its bias, its BS and prob twisted to suit the pro 1080 band wagon.

The ERMA REVIEW of 1080 , 2007 expressly forbade the use of 1080 to target deer. However, I am aware that regulation has been broken including bycthe appkication of 1080 gel paited on the foliage of deer preferred vegetstion eith treated branches tied down to permit access by the deer. Fallow herds in SI have been desimated by 1080 in the past.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12216739

88% of deer killed in the treated area and at least 8-9 years for the deer numbers to recover. (IF left alone) OSPRI / DoC habits of poisoning every 3-4 years could therefore wipe out deer in that sort of terrain.

I have on three seperate occaisions written to government explaining how TBFree AHB OSPRI are spending Three Billion Dollars more than they need to in their great Bovine TB crusade. IMO they are in collusion with DoC and heavily subsidising DoC poisoning operations elsewhere on the pretext of bTB threat as far as 20 km away from any recorded tb animal as long ago as 8+ years.

Originally Posted by Sarvo

What about People

I think the knee jerk reaction to Christchurch is a fine example of people's behaviour.
Blame the law abiding - cause they're easier to find.