Deer Management Problems

[PhilH 189]

I thought hunters in the northern regions of the globe might be interested in the deer management issues that we suffer down under...

Deer Devils of the Deep South | Newsroom

WWW.NEWSROOM.CO.NZ

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Glimpsing Bambi through the trees might be a thrill for townie and deerstalker alike, but as hungry deer...

I am retired and as a free service to the farmers, I hunt in an effort to try and keep pig and deer numbers to a manageable level on three farms around me.

As of last weekend, Sharon and I between us have taken 28 animals in the last 12 months - a mixture of both deer and pigs - of which the majority have been given away.

Note here for legal purposes:

We have passed the deer on to others with the understanding that the animals will be composted into the garden as fertilizer. We make that stipulation as it is illegal here for private hunters to sell or give away meat that they have shot....apart from immediate family. We are not even allowed to give it away as pet food. What people do with the meat once we have given it to them is out of hands though they give us an assurance that it will be composted. Yeah Right!!

The problem we have locally is not as severe as that highlighted in the article above, though it is starting to get out of control. Deer season???? What's Deer season????? Hunters here feel sorry for our northern counterparts.

Hope you enjoy the article.

Cheers

Phil

 

 

 

 

 

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

Interesting

[C.green 3,231]

What species of deer you have floating around over there ? Do they make good sizes ?

[PhilH 189]

6 hours ago, C.green said:

What species of deer you have floating around over there ? Do they make good sizes ?

Red deer is our predominant species. They can be found all over New Zealand except on Stewart Island where there is only American Whitetail. In fact I think Stewart Island is out only colony of Whitetail. We get Fallow scattered through out both islands, very prominent in the North Island. We also have Sika, Sambar and Rusa though they are all in the North Island. And then we have the Wapiti which is an elk found almost exclusively in the far south island.

Where I am living and hunting is on the end of the Rakia catchment which is mostly Red deer with a few Fallow here and there, however, the Rakia Reds and renowned for there size.

Typical weight ranges  for Red deer here in New Zealand are 95 - 215 KG for males and 85 - 110 KG for females.

The spiker that I shot last Friday gave us 51 kg of boned out meat.  

Cheers

Phil

[Stavross 15,622]

Good read that

[sussex 5,777]

Cant open the link …

They reds are certainly a tidy size mate , one of your average red hinds would be almost double the size of our fallow bucks .

My last season on the fallow ( two years ago ) finished up on 101 ,mainly of of two estates totalling 1300 acres , my pal who took over my permissions finished this year on 113 …112 fallow and 1 muntjac ..all from the Sussex area ..This hardly made a dent in the numbers on one of the places , the other had a cull target of fifty which he reached with a week to spare ..it had taken me ten years to get the numbers somewhere near where they should be given the land size and habitat .The condition and size of the deer on both places where chalk and cheese , the average larder weight of a mature doe on one of the estates was around 50lb , on the other it was 68lb …ten years on its much closer .No quality or potential quality bucks were shot , they are few and far between in this neck of the woods , in the ten years I doubt I see more than three really good quality bucks .

This one went on to be the master Buck a couple of seasons later ..he survived for three seasons ..

 

My good friend who stalks on the Kent /Sussex boarder culled 147 , all fallow ..All the deer shot on his place and ours were cull animals , all went into the food chain ..

Deer numbers in the uk are at their highest level ever ..

 

[PhilH 189]

Interesting @extreme hunter,

numbers seem to be up in many places. Here in New Zealand we feel it is a multifaceted reason. Up until the 70's we used to have a government run Deer Culling department which kept the numbers to a manageable level throughout all of the State Forest's. Then some smart buggers....in the late 60's, but it didn't catch on until the 70's....decided that they would try and farm deer and it worked out really well. Then came the issue with stocking the farms quickly. More bright buggers from the back country decided they could net deer wild deer from a helicopter and yet others quickly realised that they could drop from a flying helicopter onto a running deer and wrangle it to the ground....sounds a bit hard to believe I know, but here is a link to some vintage film, or just do a search on YouTube.....

And one with a net gun...

However, because of the massive capture of deer to stock farms, the numbers stayed at a manageable level. But when farms numbers were up and their own breeding stock kicked in, demand for live deer capture went down. Then came the era of hunting the deer from helicopters to feed venison into the European market. That was successful for a while but then the farm bred deer became cheaper and the commercial hunting stopped. The wild deer numbers went up.

Just of late with the Buy-Back of firearms, after our mosque attack and the general clampdown on firearm ownership, recreational hunting has tended to drop off. Now coupled with a brilliant summer and the Covid lockdowns our wild deer, and pig as well, have flourished in the wild and we are back to some serious numbers. Of course, a lot of this is not seen until they start coming onto farmland and start competing with domestic animals for the feed.

I am guessing that your deer population could have escalated due to the good summers and Covid lockdowns as well.

The link to the original article that I posted was working this morning when I tried it so may be worth another try. It is a good read.

Cheers

Phil

[sussex 5,777]

11 hours ago, PhilH said:

Interesting @extreme hunter,

numbers seem to be up in many places. Here in New Zealand we feel it is a multifaceted reason. Up until the 70's we used to have a government run Deer Culling department which kept the numbers to a manageable level throughout all of the State Forest's. Then some smart buggers....in the late 60's, but it didn't catch on until the 70's....decided that they would try and farm deer and it worked out really well. Then came the issue with stocking the farms quickly. More bright buggers from the back country decided they could net deer wild deer from a helicopter and yet others quickly realised that they could drop from a flying helicopter onto a running deer and wrangle it to the ground....sounds a bit hard to believe I know, but here is a link to some vintage film, or just do a search on YouTube.....

And one with a net gun...

However, because of the massive capture of deer to stock farms, the numbers stayed at a manageable level. But when farms numbers were up and their own breeding stock kicked in, demand for live deer capture went down. Then came the era of hunting the deer from helicopters to feed venison into the European market. That was successful for a while but then the farm bred deer became cheaper and the commercial hunting stopped. The wild deer numbers went up.

Just of late with the Buy-Back of firearms, after our mosque attack and the general clampdown on firearm ownership, recreational hunting has tended to drop off. Now coupled with a brilliant summer and the Covid lockdowns our wild deer, and pig as well, have flourished in the wild and we are back to some serious numbers. Of course, a lot of this is not seen until they start coming onto farmland and start competing with domestic animals for the feed.

I am guessing that your deer population could have escalated due to the good summers and Covid lockdowns as well.

The link to the original article that I posted was working this morning when I tried it so may be worth another try. It is a good read.

Cheers

Phil

You can always depend on clever well educated people to cock up on common sense run systems ..

[sussex 5,777]

Phil , the lunatic diving out of the helicopter on that stag …only a kiwi would think that seems a sensible job ..I’d have loved to have seen the job card in the job centre advertising that ..

Wanted , able bodied lunatic to leap out of helicopters to wrestle live deer , on job training , you will need to be physically fit as there is some degree of physical work involved ..this is a non discriminatory position but may not suit amputees or visually impaired applicants …..we would welcome applications from women / lgbt community ..safety equipment is provided in the form of good luck wished to you by the pilot ..wages dependent on your survival ..