Thread: Deer in Southern areas?

Back in November my son and I hunted a favourite spot on the West Coast. On the first day we saw about 80 deer - mostly in 3 large groups of yearlings as they had recently been chased off by their mums. So for every one of those yearlings, nearby there was a more than likely pregnant hind = around 240 deer, and this was in a very small area in one valley, probably no more than a square kilometre.

We never bothered venturing further up the valley to see how many were there.

We shot 9 over 4 days but could have shot more. Obviously couldn’t carry 9 deer so were selective in what we took. Wasteful? Sure was, but not as wasteful as DOC hitting the valley with 1080, and the number we shot will not even go close to slowing the population growth, let alone reducing it.

It is a simple equation. Either hunters need to shoot more animals to help control the population, or the control will be taken out of our hands.