Thread: The state of pest populations in NZ

Originally Posted by sightpicture

If that is not due to "gun control", what is the likely cause?

Yes @sightpicture, you are absolutely right... The rabbit explosion is directly attributable to the policies of Jacinda Arden and the NZ Labour party

Originally Posted by sightpicture

If that is not due to "gun control", what is the likely cause?

I'm sorry but this seems like a seriously far fetched claim to make.

OK, so no evidence then, just anecdote. Got it.

Originally Posted by sightpicture

OK, so no evidence then, just anecdote. Got it.

We still have bolt action guns and so did pest controllers of the past.....

Spray and pray days be gone

Hamish

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Originally Posted by ebf

Yes @sightpicture, you are absolutely right... The rabbit explosion is directly attributable to the policies of Jacinda Arden and the NZ Labour party

Sometimes in life its best to stop arguing with someone and to just let them be wrong.

Originally Posted by HNTMAD

Deer have certainly increased in population since I started hunting, I know I do my bit for reducing the population but cant say the same for others......as I dont know. (I know some others do that i know of)

My opinion assuming you are talking about the Christchurch incident has not and will not change the way I hunt.

I also strongly believe we as recreational hunters can not and will not keep the population under control. Ways to help is to shoot hinds, and lots of them. Aside from that we are not going to be able to do it without help. The likes of the Thar cull etc would likely be seen across other pests.

Hamish

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Too many people want a lot of deer around when politically, environmentally and eating wise a lower number of deer but higher quality animals is much preferable all round to all parties.

Originally Posted by Tahr

Given the right environment deer populations can double every 3 years or so.

As Hamish says we need to shoot more hinds.

Recreational hunters have never been able to control pest numbers and likely never will. People being too lazy to get off their arses will be having a greater effect on pest populations than the new gun laws which I think will be negligible.

Whilst I agree, it's not from lack of effort, miles walked and general trying from my part!!!

Semi autos will probably only have an effect on goats where effective recreational shooters were doing goat control missions for fun.

Most people I know let goats walk in the hopes that a deer pops out when we should be bombing them up every chance we get.

Here’s my 2c from a professional perspective. Animal numbers are certainly on the up across the board and the country. My thoughts on why they are on the increase, increased difficulty for professionals to get access, it’s harder to sell them due to increased poison application and stand down periods ( specifically broadificum), people are locking up land as they are selling goats live which is fair enough it’s their land, The price of venison for pet food is low at the minute, human consumption factories are busy with farm stuff at the moment and there isn’t as many of them as there once was.
Here’s some experiences I’ve had with landowners. A couple of farmers were having issues with deer eating their grass, pilot friend of mine was going to do some spraying so said we will shoot them from machine before we spray, we turn up at daylight expecting heaps of deer we only get 5, we’re wondering where all these deer are, turns out the cocky let some one the day before we turn up he shoots 5 and doesn’t tell us about it until we quiz him.
The same pilot constantly sees anywhere from 30-100 on various farms, he offers to shoot them for farmer, farmer finds it hard to believe there is that many deer on his farm, and says that his boy enjoys shooting the odd one so isn’t interested.
You talk to a cocky he is all keen for you to come out and clean up the deer, he will call you when to come out.... that was 12 months ago.
Cocky wants the deer shot, you tell him not to put any more broady out as the stand down period is almost up, what does he do? Puts more broady out, that’s another 3 years.
Most cocky want some form of kick back, I’m happy to pay per deer, but they have to play the game. One cocky wanted $300 per fallow, couldn’t understand why we were laughing at him, took us a couple of minutes to settle then pointed out we would be lucky to get $80-120 for said fallow.

There’s a ridiculous amount of rabbits in Lower Hutt. Rabbits lead to stoats from what I understand which starts having a bigger effect on native birds and while there’s a pretty good bunch of people trapping in backyards and local forests the council pretty much don’t want to know about it.
I’ve tried getting in touch with local councils to see if I can take a few out with the bow using a thumper rather than a sharp point but they won’t have a bar of it.

As for deer I’d happily shoot more if I could find the bastards


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Rabbits and pigs seem down around here. Many areas that were full of pigs there are hardly any now. i have no doubt 1080 was used to control larger game around alot of areas here than possums etc.
Deer are in good numbers in some areas, esp close to farms. roads rtc in DOC and private land the numbers are high.
But further back in the bush they down in DOC in areas i hunt. Lots of hunters about, but many like the easy way. private blocks, spotlighting, drive hunting forestry etc.
Not so much doing the hard yards hence animals to be found for the guy that wants to do some effort.
I hunt for meat so do my part and shoot whats there

Originally Posted by Phil_H

Not a real judge of of deer numbers as had never seen one in the wild until the beginning of this year and now have seen over 50. However, living in the country where I am, farmers are telling of large numbers of deer being seen in the region like they have never seen them before. The local farm manager has seen a mob of 16 at 01:00 pm in the afternoon on one of the farms he manages and again another mob of 19 within the same week. On this occasion he even took a picture of the mob on his phone and was showing it to me. Myself, I watched a mob of 12 come out of the bush and browse on the farm for about 40 minutes starting half an hour before sunset.

Rabbit and hare numbers? Used to hunt this area as a kid over 50 years ago and then I dreamed of the numbers I am seeing now. I am seeing up to 15 - 20 hares on a paddock at one time in the evening, rabbits a little less only because it can be a bit wet here for them. That said, when I was a kid we had the Rabbit Board that used to keep the numbers of rabbits and hares in check through shooting and poisoned carrots.

Cheers
Phil

No surprise, private blocks arent letting many hunters on, the deer numbers are huge . Heard of 26 and 18 in the paddock recently on farms around here but dont let hunters on so what do you expect.
Plus many of these blocks dont allow 1080 so numbers are growing in a big way but otherwise DOc land its hit and miss depending how easy the country is, been 1080 etc etc.

Originally Posted by deer243

No surprise, private blocks arent letting many hunters on, the deer numbers are huge . Heard of 26 and 18 in the paddock recently on farms around here but dont let hunters on so what do you expect.
Plus many of these blocks dont allow 1080 so numbers are growing in a big way but otherwise DOc land its hit and miss depending how easy the country is, been 1080 etc etc.

If even half the nonsense I hear of actually occurs around farms that I hear many rural people report I too would be very apprehensive to let Joe public onto my farm. Let alone with firearms. Abject vandalism, theft and shear laziness vs deer stealing my grass. Tough choice.

Originally Posted by kiwijames

If even half the nonsense I hear of actually occurs around farms that I hear many rural people report I too would be very apprehensive to let Joe public onto my farm. Let alone with firearms. Abject vandalism, theft and shear laziness vs deer stealing my grass. Tough choice.

Yes. And that's why most cockies just have a select trusted few who they allow onto their property. It takes a long time and exemplary behaviour to build that trust.

Its becoming more usual for me to be told "shoot everything you see", although I suspect that if I did they might not like it so much and change their minds. The last time it occurred Craig and I shot 4 of 13 seen and the cockie seemed happy about that. I have 2 social service organisations I give a lot of meat to and they greatly appreciate it and the cockies like the idea too.

Originally Posted by Fat ninja

Cocky wants the deer shot, you tell him not to put any more broady out as the stand down period is almost up, what does he do? Puts more broady out, that’s another 3 years.

That's a tough one, brodifacoum is widely used for rats and possums. In my area it's illegal not to have some kind of possum control going on, and not all of us have a CSL so brodi is by far the most common choice. If anyone went 3 years between possum bait applications here they would be in court.

I hadn't really considered this seriously enough, does this mean no wild venison from farms could ever be considered safe? Every farm around here has got possum bait stations, so theoretically any feral deer could have had access to it, even if just from spills etc.

Originally Posted by HOO

There’s a ridiculous amount of rabbits in Lower Hutt. Rabbits lead to stoats from what I understand which starts having a bigger effect on native birds and while there’s a pretty good bunch of people trapping in backyards and local forests the council pretty much don’t want to know about it.

Even the central area between the north and south lanes of the SH1 opposite the Police College in Papakowhai was crawling with the little buggers a couple of days ago...

Originally Posted by kiwijames

If even half the nonsense I hear of actually occurs around farms that I hear many rural people report I too would be very apprehensive to let Joe public onto my farm. Let alone with firearms. Abject vandalism, theft and shear laziness vs deer stealing my grass. Tough choice.

There is hunting on the farm i worked on. I see it as part of my perk getting paid shit money. Ive worked hard over the last 8yrs trying to let stags mature etc. Culling hinds during the year and crap heads
We had a nobody come up from town last year, asked the owner. They let go 14 rounds and brought back two deer. I was then asked to take this guy out in the roar. Every animal we seen with antler he thought he was going to shoot.
In the end i gave him the talk about showing the place a bit of respect and the animals . Also said while am working here this is how it is.
So what am saying is think about the staff when you go on these special places. Also the future, a lot of these blocks haven't become what they are over night through lack of management.