Thread: Hunting in NZ, is it too easy?

I joined this forum to learn more about hunting in NZ, to include the culture of Kiwi hunting. This is a very interesting topic and gives me insight as to what problems you, the locals, see with foreign hunters. Does DOC document how many animals are destroyed annually from the 1080 program? I am assuming that DOC flies helicopters after the poison drops to fly out the dead animals, is that correct? Because the animal has been poisoned it has no nutritional or commercial value so what happens to the carcass?

I admit to seeing several videos on YouTube where both foreigners and locals take an animal, cut off the head or rack and apparently leave the carcass behind. (I understand that this is not an accurate sampling of the hunting population but I honestly had the impression that a number of hunters, locals (to include guides) and non-locals, practice this wasteful behaviour on a regular basis. I am hoping that my impression is wrong. Is it common to find headless carcasses and bones lying about from this practice?

I understand that there are no mammalian predators or scavengers in NZ. Has there been a problem for the various raptors and rooks with eating poisoned carrion? I am assuming they are the only scavengers on the islands, no?

So let's assume that a foreign hunter has a trophy beast and wishes to donate the carcass. Is there a way to do this. That is to say, is there either a Governmental agency or an NGO that will take the carcass and process it? As a foreign hunter that wants to visit NZ to go hunting, I cannot take the meat with me back the California because of countless number of regulations and statues, what can one do with the carcass as a more responsible hunter? Are there local restaurants and/or butchers that will accept donated meat?

Thanks,
Scotty