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

One important observation relevant to this thread is this chart - ungulates are increasing in occupancy, i.e. are found in more places across public land (any individual site on the scale of the monitoring - 8km grid - has a higher probability of having ungulates present).

In the areas where they are found they are not necessarily increasing in abundance (as a national average) but there is higher occupancy. This is objective fact supported by data collected through a scientifically robust monitoring system.

This increase in occupancy may contribute to the perception amongst managers/green groups that "deer are out of control" which is the greatest threat to hunting in New Zealand in my opinion - if it is more widely perceived amongst the public in general that deer are a huge acute ecological threat, the social license to maintain viable populations for hunting will dwindle and hunters will be viewed as anti-environment reactionaries.