Thread: SUNDAY TVNZ - NZ Deer Population

Been following Trap and Trigger pest control business for a while, and they’ve shared some info. Looks like SUNDAY the current events show is doing a story on NZ deer population, which features them. Be interesting to see how balanced it is, hopefully having Jordan and the team on there will help the situation.

I saw through their social media that they’d been culling parts of Queen Charlotte Sound, I was in Bay of Many Coves in late March and couldn’t believe how bare the bush was from right behind peoples house, right to the ridge tops. You could easily see 100 - 200 yards through the bush in most areas. The only thing left under the main canopy was the Punga and Supplejack.
Turns out they come into that bay and a few other surrounding bays, and culled with chopper and thermal in May. Was all paid for by the bays residents.
I asked them to send me a map of all the GPS marks. Pretty interesting. I’m not sure what’s considered a high population but the area shown is not very big in the grand scheme of things.

Red = Deer
Blue = Pigs
Purple = Goats

I saw the promo for the Sunday programme.
It looks some some twig n tweet people complaining about DOC (probably the game management rather than eradication plan), but also the Tui from the Hunting with Tui TV programme saying she wants to see more people out hunting (and the Trap & Trigger guy), so hopefully it has some balance and shows hunters are part of the solution. But I doubt it will get the public up in arms demanding hunters have access to semi-auto centrefires.

I stayed in a mates bach in Lochmara Bay maybe 4 years ago was during the roar - pre dawn the noise of roars was impressive - Later in the day were we sitting on the deck of the Lochmara lodge spotted some activity way out in the bay it was a boat circling a deer that had been chased into the water by a pig hunters dogs. Those dots look like a lot of animals to me.

Where we have a bach I have never heard deer from our place in Pelorus and only easter this year heard a couple of roars when out for a wander. In 50 years have never seen a live one in our bay just a dead one that fell off a cliff it was huge.

But they are moving in we are also seeing the bush getting opened up by animals grazing/stripping bark of trees - QE2 trust land behind us, they got cullers in earlier this year using drones and infra red to locate them for hunters with dogs to target - I heard they got 8.

A lot of those red dots have 2-5 dots stacked underneath them. Bay of Many Coves alone they took out 70 deer approx

This was from May. They were back in there again at start of month and took out quite a few more.

We saw and heard a lot of goats on a Queen Charlotte sailing trip in February however no deer. I'll be taking the rifle next trip. Hopefully there will be some left.

Originally Posted by kiwiaviator

We saw and heard a lot of goats on a Queen Charlotte sailing trip in February however no deer. I'll be taking the rifle next trip. Hopefully there will be some left.

Good luck in the native, it’ll be swarming with wasps round that time. Literally raining wasps in the beech forest sections. I got stung so many times and that was in late March. Ended up helping our friends lay Vespex grids on their property, was becoming a real issue for them.

A family member was one of the residents that helped foot the bill, a couple of hundred animals were taken from what I understand.

Originally Posted by Hayden

A family member was one of the residents that helped foot the bill, a couple of hundred animals were taken from what I understand.

Do you know if they recovered the meat this time?

Originally Posted by Pengy

Do you know if they recovered the meat this time?

Pretty sure they recovered any handy ones for whoever wanted them, also provided GPS marks as well I think.

Originally Posted by McNotty

Pretty sure they recovered any handy ones for whoever wanted them, also provided GPS marks as well I think.

Was at BOMC over Xmas, know what you are talking about. Plenty of deer sign when I hiked over into the Kenepuru side for a look.

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Originally Posted by Mathias

Was at BOMC over Xmas, know what you are talking about. Plenty of deer sign when I hiked over into the Kenepuru side for a look.

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The ground is just dirt under the main canopy. Leaf litter long rotted away, and no more dropped to the ground because it’s been eaten.

Originally Posted by McNotty

The ground is just dirt under the main canopy. Leaf litter long rotted away, and no more dropped to the ground because it’s been eaten.

I tell ya its them bloody Wekas!

They where just shooting and handing out some deer to the locals. We got a couple. They shot heaps as reported 2-300 first mission, it will be interesting to see how many They get this round.

Originally Posted by Cigar

I saw the promo for the Sunday programme.
It looks some some twig n tweet people complaining about DOC (probably the game management rather than eradication plan), but also the Tui from the Hunting with Tui TV programme saying she wants to see more people out hunting (and the Trap & Trigger guy), so hopefully it has some balance and shows hunters are part of the solution. But I doubt it will get the public up in arms demanding hunters have access to semi-auto centrefires.

In regards to the Sunday promo, I would say there would be a lot more hunters out there if they had their licenses processed in an acceptable time frame.