Thread: WTF. B FA LEFT SOON.

Originally Posted by joelhenton

Hi Allizdog,

There is plenty of thick bush all over New Zealand, but remember that thick bush doesn't necessarily mean it's all comprised of palatable plant species. Deer are quite selective browsers that concentrate their feeding on plant species that are palatable, the likes of broadleaf (Griselinia littoralis), Coprosma grandifolia, lancewood (Pseudopanax crassifolius), kamahi (Weinmannia racemosa), mahoe (Melicytus ramiflorus), putaputaweta (Carpodetus serrated), five finger (Pseudopanax arboretum), to name but a few of the woody trees. And they will consume these at all stages of the plants life, seedlings, saplings, and mature trees. The palatables become fewer, while the non-palatables increase in abundance.

Regards,
Joel

Karaka seedlings are a good indicator plant here, they come up in huge numbers almost forming a ground cover, and you can see the damage to seedlings easily when deer or goats first show up. When the karaka seedlings are getting low, the deer and/or goat numbers are high. They also love nikau, I hand sowed many thousands of seeds before the deer arrived, had thousands of them up to about 1m high, almost all gone now.