Thread: Tahr -Ben Ohau range

At the weekend i took my kids to shoot some Tahr up in the Ben Ohau range before Doc do anything stupid again.( wishful thinking)
Anyway its a nice accessible valley that i have hunted most years since 1992 and one that you will find reasonable numbers of tahr but certainly not excessive numbers by any means.
Last time we hunted, which was back in early june we saw around 35 tahr and shot a couple.
This time around we thought we will shoot several nannies but were disappointed to only find a nanny and kid despite searching high and low.
My suspicions regarding Doc shooting the valley were proven correct upon looking at the website which showed the cull numbers and flight path of the chopper (and yes i should have checked before).
Here is the link to check any areas before wasting your time going away for a hunt
https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-re...ol-operations/

Now the Ben Ohau range is quite a significant range that extends from lake Ohau basically to the hermitage and has great access from the highway all the way to mt Cook.
It is an important recreational area to myself and many others but basically Doc havent just culled the numbers back but have gone for extermination.
I find this to be particularly frustrating to have had this happen in such important and accessible recreational area.
The numbers were in no way in breach of the Htcp with no excessive mobs and no evidence of browsing damage (in fact its flourishing)

In fact when i first started hunting Tahr, all these areas had quite large numbers of merinos grazing these alpine areas even up as high as the tahr habitat.
Once tenure review of these areas went ahead and removed the stock, the vegetation response was quite significant in comparison to when it was extensively grazed.
This certainly showed how the environment can respond despite being grazed for many years.
The numbers of tahr post tenure review have remained relatively low through till now especially considering the size of the area.

This cull was part of the 3000 tahr shot back in June 2018 but is an area that should never have been included in the cull. It is a classic example where a bit of consultation and game management should have been carried out and certainly not such a devastating cull.

Not good to hear.

Thanks for the clear explanation, it gives an example of how things shouldn't be done....

that really sux !
And is very strong evidence of the intent by Sage/Doc to exterminate, not cull !!
They/DOC should now be required to do a follow up count of that whole area by chopper, including independent people (like hunters) to do or verify the count and thus confirm what the numbers are post "cull" & publish the damn results to hold people to account. And there should be a total halt to all further cull operations until that's done & there has been meaningful consultation about the results.

Originally Posted by chainsaw

that really sux !
And is very strong evidence of the intent by Sage/Doc to exterminate, not cull !!
They/DOC should now be required to do a follow up count of that whole area by chopper, including independent people (like hunters) to do or verify the count and thus confirm what the numbers are post "cull" & publish the damn results to hold people to account. And there should be a total halt to all further cull operations until that's done & there has been meaningful consultation about the results.

There is a link on the website that lists the bull sightings and apparently they weren't shot.
However no bulls were sighted and if they remove all the nannies then there wont be a whole lot to encourage bulls back there for the rut.
Its all very well to leave bulls but we still need a reasonable nanny population to keep breeding for the future sustainability of the herd.
We do not want to exterminate too many female tahr either.

Originally Posted by yogi

At the weekend i took my kids to shoot some Tahr up in the Ben Ohau range before Doc do anything stupid again.( wishful thinking)
Anyway its a nice accessible valley that i have hunted most years since 1992 and one that you will find reasonable numbers of tahr but certainly not excessive numbers by any means.
Last time we hunted, which was back in early june we saw around 35 tahr and shot a couple.
This time around we thought we will shoot several nannies but were disappointed to only find a nanny and kid despite searching high and low.
My suspicions regarding Doc shooting the valley were proven correct upon looking at the website which showed the cull numbers and flight path of the chopper (and yes i should have checked before).
Here is the link to check any areas before wasting your time going away for a hunt
https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-re...ol-operations/

Now the Ben Ohau range is quite a significant range that extends from lake Ohau basically to the hermitage and has great access from the highway all the way to mt Cook.
It is an important recreational area to myself and many others but basically Doc havent just culled the numbers back but have gone for extermination.
I find this to be particularly frustrating to have had this happen in such important and accessible recreational area.
The numbers were in no way in breach of the Htcp with no excessive mobs and no evidence of browsing damage (in fact its flourishing)

In fact when i first started hunting Tahr, all these areas had quite large numbers of merinos grazing these alpine areas even up as high as the tahr habitat.
Once tenure review of these areas went ahead and removed the stock, the vegetation response was quite significant in comparison to when it was extensively grazed.
This certainly showed how the environment can respond despite being grazed for many years.
The numbers of tahr post tenure review have remained relatively low through till now especially considering the size of the area.

This cull was part of the 3000 tahr shot back in June 2018 but is an area that should never have been included in the cull. It is a classic example where a bit of consultation and game management should have been carried out and certainly not such a devastating cull.

Dead right.

Had the same thing Just this weekend gone, Took the brother in law for a Tahr before doc shoots the place up and didn’t check either.. usually see 10-20 tahr a day when hunting and some deer, this time saw absolutely nothing, found a dead spiker up high and then on the way out spoke to the farmer and he said he found a 14” bull dead in the valley earlier this month after the shot it up. Should have checked the site. But I didn’t think they would clean the whole valley up in a cull.


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What is the present situation with the Thar cull? Apart from the above posts.

Originally Posted by Sideshow

What is the present situation with the Thar cull? Apart from the above posts.

From what i have heard, it was announced by Nzda and the Tahr foundation that there was an agreement reached, but now F&B and Doc are saying they havent agreed to a plan.
No one can trust Doc to take a reasonable approach after this fiasco.

If doc agrees to something they will go back on it in a ffew years time, garunteed.

Very annoying alright, the other piece of the puzzle that we as rec hunters need to know is where the WARO guys have been. DOC could easily make this info available and it would ensure more "profitable" use of time by us foot-sloggers.