Thread: The state of pest populations in NZ

Originally Posted by ebf

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...

Yeah it’s pretty bad out there too. Not a lot being done about it sadly


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Rabbit numbers are almost ridiculous on our lifestyle block at the moment. Nothing to do with semi-autos being banned as no one shot here, semi or otherwise, it's likely due to the mild winter we had which was also the first in 9 years with no flooding.

Originally Posted by berg243

you could always try a slingshot . very easy to hide while out walking.

That’s not a bad idea. Get a few bunnies in the freezer


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by The bomb

Can someone tell me where these massive wild deer populations are anywhere near the waikato?i consider myself a decent sort of hunter but I still average 1deer every 3 hunts on public land(pureora ,lake tarawera and clements mill rd)much the same as 10yrs ago and I’m not spooking large numbers of deer,I usually bump 2 on a hunt ..

I don't know about "massive wild deer numbers" but there are still plenty of them in the Kaimais...hunters flogged themselves silly all winter chasing skinny animals and then when spring arrived the hunters seem to have gone elsewhere.

As far as cni is concerned, IMO is comes down to ease of access. Heli's are too expensive for most and doc even refused me tucker air drops. In my experience around here you need to commit to a solid week and a lot of backpacking to get to decent deer numbers. It gets harder with age and just as hard for chaps with other family committments. I dont hear many farmers around cni offering hunting opportunities.
You chaps in SI, Gizzy, Wairoa and Wairarapa seem to have more "productive day hunt" opportunities than cni hunters. Travel and access costs are a factor too.
Regular aerial 1080 in Uruweras, Kaimanawa RHA and now Kaweka are a disincentive too and limit hunting choices. So, high human population, high hunter numbers, high costs and limited wide open spaces holding deer mean cni situation is somewhat different to some other areas. Even in the 800,000 acre Kaingaroa forest it was bladtedxwith 1080 and pindone carrots regularly. Access to Maori trust forests in East Taupo, Tarawera, Rangipo, Turangi is exclusive to blood shareholders only.

Also, if you watched Red Stag Timber Hunters on Prime ladt night-- 100+ man days over various areas for nil deer! All heli access and great gear etc and experienced hunters; very tough going!

Originally Posted by Fat ninja

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.

You'd get 300 per fallow for a meat hunt. But then have to either trust people or find a guide to do it.

A lot of people want to have their cake and eat it too.

Originally Posted by Ben Waimata

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.

You probably know more than me but there's stand down periods and an exclusion zone of X km per different types of animals and if its reapplied before its up then I suppose the period of time would roll over. Meaning that there's no point in time when it can be legally harvested for commercial purposes.

got rung up by my favorite farmer to say that not only has he got bunnies abundant but deer 70m from his house, i will be sitting on his bbq table with a mug of coffee and a 7mm (no not a castrated one a real one. (7mmRM) very soon

It was for venison not clients

Originally Posted by Ben Waimata

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.

Try colicalcifirol don’t need a licence, 1 month stand down and zero distance, worst thing about this is you can have ya brodi out I can’t sell a deer for 3 years within 2 k but you can sell ya sheep and cows even if they have been in the same paddock as the bait stations

Originally Posted by Russian 22.

You probably know more than me but there's stand down periods and an exclusion zone of X km per different types of animals and if its reapplied before its up then I suppose the period of time would roll over. Meaning that there's no point in time when it can be legally harvested for commercial purposes.

What I know is that every farm inside this defined possum control area is legally obliged to use brodi or some other possum bait, applied 3-4 times per year. Which means we've got 26,000ha (including a very significant deer population) from which maybe there should not have any wild meat harvested?

I've had a bit of a read, seems brodi collects in the liver etc in highest percentages. Eating a small amount of meat excluding any offal should be no problem even if the pest had been eating small amounts of brodi. "should be" no problem....

Originally Posted by gonetropo

got rung up by my favorite farmer to say that not only has he got bunnies abundant but deer 70m from his house, i will be sitting on his bbq table with a mug of coffee and a 7mm (no not a castrated one a real one. (7mmRM) very soon

I was talking to a farmer from Porangahau a while back who told me he could usually see 50-70 deer from his breakfast table every morning! A decade earlier there were no deer at all.

That’s on of the areas I was talking about in my first post

Originally Posted by gonetropo

got rung up by my favorite farmer to say that not only has he got bunnies abundant but deer 70m from his house, i will be sitting on his bbq table with a mug of coffee and a 7mm (no not a castrated one a real one. (7mmRM) very soon

Can't get much easier to fill the freezer than that gonetropo.

Lower Waikato here. DoC blocks get hammered with weekend hunters as generally easy access. High human population not far away in the ‘golden triangle’. 1080 doesn’t help as well. Lots of mobs of deer on farms. Private access though so it’s a case of not what you know but who you know. Seems to me the primo areas is the East Coast between East Cape and Palliser


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Totally unrelated to firearm law changes, but the rabbit numbers around the Taupo area are insane, especially in urban areas where no shooting can take place. I just wrangled a small game permit out of the local DoC office so I'll be going for a walk around one of my old spots out of town to check it out.

I had another really good goat hunting spot that is getting harder and harder to get a goat on now. It used to be never fail, I think that some serious culling has happened on the farm land that surrounds it. The last time I was there I actually watched a farmer shoot a bunch of goats on his property, so I don't think they are selling them.