Thread: The state of pest populations in NZ

[QUOTE=HNTMAD;934995]Has something to do with bring an introduced species you will find

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Fare enough, but the original inhabitants who ate the foliage here were annihilated, these are here now just do the same job.

[QUOTE=tetawa;935004]

Originally Posted by HNTMAD

Has something to do with bring an introduced species you will find

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Fare enough, but the original inhabitants who ate the foliage here were annihilated, these are here now just do the same job.

Well they weren't brought here for that, they were brought here as gifts and sport for the rich folk

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[QUOTE=HNTMAD;935006]

Originally Posted by tetawa

Well they weren't brought here for that, they were brought here as gifts and sport for the rich folk

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They were not brought here as sport for the rich folk. They were released onto public land so that all may hunt in the future to avoid the only the rich can hunt situations our ancestors had to suffer.

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Well - I gone back to the old fashion way of trapping
Turn over turf - nestle trap in 50-75mm hole approx spade squared
I use a piece of shade cloth over - then sprinkle dirt over that - paper or Dock leaf will do too

Rabbits go to fresh turned turf instantly evey night
Had 2 out of 2 sets - last two nights
Bloody modern Poison etc - prob all BS as it aint reduced # here
Prob just makn then breed faster and get fatter

Originally Posted by Sarvo

Well - I gone back to the old fashion way of trapping
Turn over turf - nestle trap in 50-75mm hole approx spade squared
I use a piece of shade cloth over - then sprinkle dirt over that - paper or Dock leaf will do too

Rabbits go to fresh turned turf instantly evey night
Had 2 out of 2 sets - last two nights
Bloody modern Poison etc - prob all BS as it aint reduced # here
Prob just makn then breed faster and get fatter

Talking to two property owners who go to great details to remove "pests", both have purchased the electronic gas operated rat killing units that are being sold. Both have been informed to their phone dozens of times that the unit has been "fired", yet to find a dead "pest" on site.

Originally Posted by tetawa

Talking to two property owners who go to great details to remove "pests", both have purchased the electronic gas operated rat killing units that are being sold. Both have been informed to their phone dozens of times that the unit has been "fired", yet to find a dead "pest" on site.

Unless you check the next day they are likely to be scavenged. I've been running 6 of them. I've caught rats, mice and a hedgehog, so I know for a fact that they work.

IIRC on some of the smaller more remote islands they were released as an emergency food source for shipwrecked sailors.

So then we are farming "pests"??? If we farm something then I think it's pretty strange to define it as a pest. I guess it's fair to say deer can be a pest. You can define people as pests by the environmentalist logic.

Promoting hunters/shooters as a threat to society isn't going to help you with pest control.

During the depression the big stations survived by mass netting and shooting rabbits for skins.

"Government subsidy"? Taxpayers pay? Taxpayer subsidy but fa hunting access?
Like the DoC heirarchy refusing me tuckrr air drop to help me create a decent access route into an area holding deer, then the following year they airdrop thousands of hectares of food (poisoned food) for animsls and birds ! Go figure.

Originally Posted by Woody

"Government subsidy"? Taxpayers pay? Taxpayer subsidy but fa hunting access?
Like the DoC heirarchy refusing me tuckrr air drop to help me create a decent access route into an area holding deer, then the following year they airdrop thousands of hectares of food (poisoned food) for animsls and birds ! Go figure.

Spose it would be a bit like the taxpayer filling Aucklands coffers all the time eh....

Originally Posted by Woody

"Government subsidy"? Taxpayers pay? Taxpayer subsidy but fa hunting access?
Like the DoC heirarchy refusing me tuckrr air drop to help me create a decent access route into an area holding deer, then the following year they airdrop thousands of hectares of food (poisoned food) for animsls and birds ! Go figure.

Poison drops targeting birds???? I have never heard of such a thing happening in NZ. Was it a DOC operation? Were they targeting introduced birds on DOC managed land? Please enlighten us. This sounds to be a new sort of pest control no one has heard of before?

Originally Posted by Hiawatha

Poison drops targeting birds???? I have never heard of such a thing happening in NZ. Was it a DOC operation? Were they targeting introduced birds on DOC managed land? Please enlighten us. This sounds to be a new sort of pest control no one has heard of before?

Dont be a dick. You should know by now the insectivores are hit by 1080 as by kill of aerial poison.

My my you are a sensitive soul ay. I was merely having a bit of fun, given that you were making statements that may not necessarily be correct to sound like fact. You should expect to be called out on that. There is enough emotive clap trap around already on both sides without us adding to it ay. And when you say 'know by now', actually I have been observing things quite closely and unemotionally for some time, and there seems to me to be more bird life in areas treated regularly by 1080 than not. Certainly not less, that is for sure. This is an observation backed up by other hunters I know who travel widely across NZ. None of us like the thought of aerial toxins or even any toxin per se, but seem to be observing the same things. We have also observed a difference in bird life simply between different habitat types. Too many of us look for visible and physical proof to back up our initial emotional response and feelings. That is what is called 'anti science'. I do of course have absolutely no issue with you hating aerial poison. That is your right, as it is mine.

And to get back to the thread's main theme. Everywhere I go and work at the moment the people are talking about a huge amount more rabbits about this year. I think it is a seasonal thing backed up by a high survival rate of breeders coming through the winter. We are also seeing rats and mice in the bush during daylight hours which is a good indicator of abundance, though very rough as a measuring tool. I and friends are seeing a lot of stoats about at the moment, though this is dispersal time for young ones leaving the nest. They are also dumb and hungry and more visible during daylight hours too. I am also seeing way more deer on private land now than five years ago. If nothing changes there may well be a reckoning for deer on private land in another five or ten. On public land, the numbers seem to be quite variable. In bush country there are plenty deer about, as they get less pressure now than ever. Apart from aerial poison. The impacts of that on deer herds seems to vary place by place too. Few people seem to hunt the public land bush and tracts of country with few open places seem to hold good numbers of deer. And goats. A million in some places and stuff all in others. They breed back quickly though. Possums the same.