The concept of wild animal being classified as pests has been strongly challenged by the Sporting Hunters Outdoor Trust. Trust convenor Laurie Collins of Westport said current strong anti-wild animal views were wrong.
He was responding to NZ Federated Farmers advocating for a national pest plan because of complaints wild animals such as deer were feeding on farmers’ pastures.
“It does seem strange in these days of technological advances such as helicopters, highly accurate rifles, scope sights, thermal scopes and drones that farmers cannot harvest deer and wild pig on their properties themselves or allow genuine recreational hunters access to harvest animals. Farmers can sell harvested animals to game depots to cover costs and give added income. Or stock their deep freezes with prime organic meat,” he said.
He viewed with concern the wording “national pest plan.”
“Deer are not necessarily a pest. They are a wild animal resource that needs management, not extermination policies. Management embraces reducing numbers to within the carrying capacity of habitat. The ironic twist is that some farmers welcome some wild deer on their property and some run safari type diversification particularly around the autumn roar. It would be far better and more realistic to term it “a national wild animal resource plan.”
He praised Federated Farmers’ concern about the folly of “carbon forestry speculators” from several angles such as loss of productive farms, decline of rural communities, short sighted reliance on mythical market forces, providing seed banks for wilding pine spread and sapping stream flow.
“The John Key National government’s brainchild of carbon farming is ludicrous, a cop-out for gross polluters. Ardern’s Labour government even opened the door wider for foreign carbon forestry speculators. Environmental and economic folly,” he exclaimed.
However he criticised Federated Farmers’ emotional references to deer “smashing our native forests, regenerating scrub and grasslands.”
Laurie Collins said deer selectively browse just as moa did for 60 million years.
“It’s worth noting the ecological history of NZ’s vegetation evolving over a period of millions of years under widespread browsing by millions of moa.”
He referred to Moa book author Quinn Berentson on U tube who put moa numbers at 2.5 million and eminent ecologist Dr Graeme Caughley at 6 million.
“Moa were exterminated by 13th century migrants and much of their habitat was destroyed by burning. There’s a section of scientists who believe the browsing of deer “is not dissimilar” to that of moa. Indeed other birds browsed such as takahe, kōkako and pigeon (kereru). The question is would moa be viewed as a pest?”
He acknowledged that there had been an increase in wild deer numbers.
“True the Labour government’s ham-fisted handling of covid, stopped recreational hunters from harvesting deer thus leading to some increase in numbers.
But that should be easily remedied by currently increasing the harvest as outlined earlier. It should be management of numbers – not emotionally charged extermination, which is impossible anyhow. Learn to live with wildlife,” said Laurie Collins.
Laurie Collins – “learn to live with wildlife”
Yes the pest paranoia is widespread. I recallin 1950s a visiting US scientist sent to NZ on behalf of Hawaii who were considering introducing deer and which had heard of NZ’s so called deer problem. He – Dr William Graf – concluded NZ authorities had an ‘anti-exotic wild animal phobia.’
Full marks to Sporting Hunters Outdoor Trust.
Laurie Collins is very seldom wrong and about this anti-exotic wild animal phobia he is absolutely 100% correct.
Sadly, in their headlong rush to kill anything and everything classed as non-native, they are pushing more and more native species to the brink of extinction. Kea, who once had a bounty on them, are getting scarce. The raptors that used to flourish around my place disappear every few years as poison is laid for possums – who actually are still amazingly abundant as I see them most evenings after dark. Rats and mice still abound despite everything they throw at them. The rabbits and hares seem completely untouched by any attempts to reduce their numbers, and as for larger game animals, well while numbers are down, pigs and deer still roam the hills adjacent to me. Unfortunately, due to the possibility of poison, I cannot take advantage of these protein resource for fear of my own secondary poisoning.
If farmers are so worried about deer on their properties, why don’t they organise recreational hunters to hunt them? It’s common knowledge that the mere presence of hunters will deter deer and pigs from routinely entering farmlands. Some of these farmers complaining about too many deer seem to be just too lazy to take the trouble to contact their local Deerstalkers Association branch and ask them for assistance.
It is amazing how many people follow alarm at a threat. Excuse the comparison but Hitler preyed on that human failing.
Politicians have always done it and the media revels in it. NZ must be the only country which ignores biological logic and deals in alarm calls whether it be invasive “pests”, climate change or some other threat.
Look at this comment by a renownbed social commentator H L Mencken back in 1920s. “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”