Thread: Nuisance Ducks - can they be shot out of season?

Years ago while farming in Northland, we had major problems with Paradise Ducks coming off the molt and converging on our river pastures. It was nothing to have 3,000 birds mowing down the paddocks which had been locked up for hay. After lots of negotiation with the then Wildlife Service, we were given permission to shoot them out of season in an effort to disperse the numbers. The Wildlife guys actually came out and were part of the shooting team.

Today I had a very irate cocky leave a message on my phone requesting that I come out and 'disperse' a large number of Paradise Ducks from his pastures. Whats the rules these days on shooting nuisance ducks? I know that it was gazetted a couple of years ago allowing you to shoot shags if they were causing problems without needing formal permission. I cannot find any information on the Dept of Conservation or the Fish and Game web sites.

Happy to go down and make some noise for the cocky, but even happier to drive the message home with some direct hits if its permissible.