Thread: the OFF TOPIC to Stags shot 21 (discussion of wild animal management)

Originally Posted by gimp

Really need to define what sort of outcome(s) you want to achieve first

The outcome I would like to see is as follows:
A balanced age group population of deer with a good proportion of trophy quality and aged stags in those few areas that can produce them.
The current situation is that during periods of high feral venison prices the Waro operators go silly and cash in shooting every deer they can find. During periods of normal pricing they still do annual fly throughs targeting stags.
This results in the deer population becoming unbalanced as Waro creams off an annual take of stags and in effect runs the wilds like a big hind farm. During periods like right now with low venison returns, hunters rush off to trophy producing areas in the hope of beating the choppers and bagging a trophy. During periods of high venison returns, there is no point in going to those areas as the stags have been shot in velvet.
In the summer the stags and hinds occupy separate habitats and it is easy for a machine to target stags by flying the stag areas. Stags are worth more not just because of greater carcass weight but also because of by-products - pizzle, sinew, velvet
The outcome that I would like could be easily attained by putting annual area take limits on Waro - for example remove 200 hinds and no stags for Mount Hutt / Nth Ashburton