Thread: Newshub attacking Sika

The likelihood of culling being undertaken in both the Kawekas and a Ruahines is relatively high. The budget is there.

Is it a bad thing?
No!
Is it new?
No!
The Kawekas have had culling undertaken before. After the first round management at DoC had a bit of a reshuffle from memory and a 'hinds only ' policy was implemented. It was successful, we got beech regeneration. DoC teamed up with one of the hunting mags and all of the stag sightings, animals shot and areas that were identified as having higher animal densities that recreational hunters should try target were all mapped.

It didn't take an excessive amount of deer being removed to make a difference. One of my favourite spots we used to frequently see upwards of 30 deer for a weekend. After the culling we would see half a dozen or so. Still plenty to go around.

We owe it to the deer and the environment to reduce the numbers a bit. This winter I shot a few sika that were so skinny they didn't even have the energy to run away. Starving to death. As has been pointed out, every area is different. Some can sustain higher animal numbers and just because an area might appear not to be crawling with deer, some of that beech country is scarce in feed and can't actually sustain a high deer numbers but the carrying capacity is still to high which is detrimental to the environment. Other areas the deer numbers are not too high at all.

Once the animal numbers are reduced then it is up to the recreational hunters to prove that they can manage deer and take the opportunity to try keep the population stable.