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

Pretty sure red deer female can be viable for breedi g at 3 months in right conditions.

Originally Posted by Woody

Pretty sure red deer female can be viable for breedi g at 3 months in right conditions.

In the very rare cases of young hinds giving birth on farms, if we work back from calving date it puts mating at late July / early August

Originally Posted by Woody

Pretty sure red deer female can be viable for breedi g at 3 months in right conditions.

well in the 3 months, every twelve months, it will have the baby.

sorry simple terms., the female deer of whichever age, will , each year, produce? a fawn each time the rut comes around.
something happens in the rut and the Male deer breed the Female deer and it seems this happens each year around the same time.

if you look at similar animals...eg grass eaters with four legs...sheep,cattle,goats....can be weaned,only need bottle fed for 8-10 weeks so look at 3mths as happy medium....fawns will be similar,but early weaned fawn left to fend for itelf still has a hell of a lot of learning to do...if it can re-find its family group minus mum,they might be ok...if on fringe country with plenty of feed they should be ok...if they survive the next 6 months without being shot,they should be a cunning ,hardy animal .

A few roars back I had a fawn hanging out with me for over 20 minutes. Maybe mum had just been popped? Not sure, but it was very curious as to what I was and came in to 3-4 metres from me. I ended up shooing it away as it wouldnt f off

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

if you look at similar animals...eg grass eaters with four legs...sheep,cattle,goats....can be weaned,only need bottle fed for 8-10 weeks so look at 3mths as happy medium....fawns will be similar,but early weaned fawn left to fend for itelf still has a hell of a lot of learning to do...if it can re-find its family group minus mum,they might be ok...if on fringe country with plenty of feed they should be ok...if they survive the next 6 months without being shot,they should be a cunning ,hardy animal .

I don't disagree Micky and am all for shooting hinds but like any animal the longer its on mum the better for it just gives it that better start to life. If mums shot to early the fawn with starve death.
For me november to march is yearlings or a poor genetic stag and rest of the year is hinds

A very interesting thread that has given me much to ponder.
I don't shoot hinds from the start of November until the end of February, although i have shot the odd dry hind out in open country when i can see she is not milking.
I am all for managed areas with a tag system, for example you pay a nominal fee say $25 to hunt the Rakaia are and you get 3 hind tags and one stag tag but the the stag must have a minimum of 6 points on one antler. I hunted areas like this in Canada and the antler quality was far superior to the areas where there were any antlered bull tags. The problem with this system in NZ is that it requires self policing and perhaps some legislation change.
Shhoting deer and walking away is not much fun, i have done it on a few farms over the years just to get numbers down and i wouldn't advocate for anyone to do this but if you are after meat shoot two hinds instead of one and take the best bits.
It seems that here in NZ we have have a boom and bust cycle of population management, in the not too distant past we were talking about leave the hinds for breeding and now we as hunters have to start knocking over hinds for the good of the Habitat.
Has anyone made a Shoot 5 hinds for every stag sticker yet?

Its my experience that mostly our wild red deer don't have their first fawn until 3 years old.

I shoot hinds from late March on. Bearing in mind though that about 20% of hinds are dry so if Im certain as I can be that that's the case, I do shoot some before then.

On the public land I hunt the hind to stag ratio is out of whack, and on private land there are simply too many deer altogether.

In the Hauragis last week (2 full days) I saw 3 stags and 21 hinds. Albeit that there were stags that I didn't see, but heard. Maybe 6-8. But when you see a spiker holding hinds the population balance is out of kilter. He got shot, but I should have shot one of the 2 hinds he had instead really.

Originally Posted by bigbear

I don't disagree Micky and am all for shooting hinds but like any animal the longer its on mum the better for it just gives it that better start to life. If mums shot to early the fawn with starve death.
For me november to march is yearlings or a poor genetic stag and rest of the year is hinds

Agree totally however I've shot q few pregnant hinds into January without issue. It's also seems to be more common to find barron hinds in some of the areas I hunt. Which I don't know if it age or feed related or both. They do tend to be big grey animals.

anyway, theyve been witnessed to breed much earlier, an your experience could be 4 animals or it could be 400, so there is a possibility that the current trend of 600 hinds to 1x stag means Stag doesnt need to root the little bugger to feel content he has spread his "scrubby 4 point spindley " antlers , genetics i mean, acros the herd.

have 400 stags to ya 5 hinds and watch the youngings get a rooted.

Originally Posted by Stocky

Agree totally however I've shot q few pregnant hinds into January without issue. It's also seems to be more common to find barron hinds in some of the areas I hunt. Which I don't know if it age or feed related or both. They do tend to be big grey animals.

there could and would be some very very old Hinds living in close proximitey to Farm land and Doc land in a secluded corner! possibly more than we think.
an more odds of that happening than having many more than the odd Exceptional Old stag in the bushes on Doc up the major valley ends.


the hinds wise up due to the old bugger whos been passed up an wat not... which is good for the herd in busy areas- makes it hard for the private hunter dealing wih the educated him,

Originally Posted by WireWorking

A very interesting thread that has given me much to ponder.
I don't shoot hinds from the start of November until the end of February, although i have shot the odd dry hind out in open country when i can see she is not milking.
I am all for managed areas with a tag system, for example you pay a nominal fee say $25 to hunt the Rakaia are and you get 3 hind tags and one stag tag but the the stag must have a minimum of 6 points on one antler. I hunted areas like this in Canada and the antler quality was far superior to the areas where there were any antlered bull tags. The problem with this system in NZ is that it requires self policing and perhaps some legislation change.
Shhoting deer and walking away is not much fun, i have done it on a few farms over the years just to get numbers down and i wouldn't advocate for anyone to do this but if you are after meat shoot two hinds instead of one and take the best bits.
It seems that here in NZ we have have a boom and bust cycle of population management, in the not too distant past we were talking about leave the hinds for breeding and now we as hunters have to start knocking over hinds for the good of the Habitat.
Has anyone made a Shoot 5 hinds for every stag sticker yet?

I Like the idea of a tag system not only on deer but tahr as well to but the fee might start at $25 but whats it going to end at? $1000 ?10000?
We have to think of the future game management as well as the future hunters, i want my son to be able to hunt and his kids. Once we put a price on it it never going to be the same and can you trust all the government's just like your life time firearms license.
What about the treaty of waitangi? will there be a loop hole for different rules different people?

Nz hunter done a story when Emil went home Denmark and hunted with his dad am pretty sure on there they had to log where they shoot there stag. gps mark it tag etc and maybe aloud one meat animal as well (long time ago)

The herds of special interest thing through the GAC? Anything come of that?

https://nzgameanimalcouncil.org.nz/h...cial-interest/

I still think going ahead we need all big game animals to be put under one foundation deer tahr and chamoas.
Sorry @Tahr i was still typing when you put the link above. But you hardly here anything from the GAC.
I here more from the sika foundation and wapiti foundation and i have no ties to both

Originally Posted by bigbear

I still think going ahead we need all big game animals to be put under one foundation deer tahr and chamoas.
Sorry @Tahr i was still typing when you put the link above. But you hardly here anything from the GAC.
I here more from the sika foundation and wapiti foundation and i have no ties to both

Agreee, but at least the GAC was formed through legislation and the HOSI are part of that legislation. Tat ought to mean something (or nothing).