She has instructed her department to look at what she called “the increasing deer abundance and spread, and the impacts on public conservation land.”
The NZ Conservation Authority discussed her instruction at its June meeting and minutes from that meeting revealed the Department of Conservation (DOC) is leading a project to “develop a response to better manage deer nationally.”
DOC’s four-stage project will define the problem, develop and then enable the preferred response by implementing the plan from July.
The project was initiated following damage by deer to forests in the Raukumara, Kaimai and Mamaku Ranges with lessons learnt to be extended to the Ruahine, Kaweka and Kaimanawa Ranges.
Sage says in the Raukumara Ranges deer have steadily increased in the last 20 years and are now eating plant species that were previously numerous.
“In the central North Island there is the ongoing threat of mountain beech forest collapse as high deer numbers browse forest understorey, preventing mountain beech seedlings from becoming trees,” she said.
Adding the poor condition and size of deer suggests numbers are excessive.
Wild animal recovery operators in Raukumara have noted the average size of deer there has fallen from 60kg to 45kg, while the recent autopsy of 450 deer by the Central North Island Sika Foundation found 78% had a condition score of average to poor.
It also found 60% of sika hinds had not bred.
“The high proportion of barren hinds and deer in average to poor condition taken from this survey area in the Kaimanawa Ranges indicate that the habitat in that area is struggling under current deer densities,” Sage said.
Deer are being seen in new locations, including fallow deer in Northland, where the region’s deer free status is under pressure from illegal releases and deer farm escapes, to Southland where wild deer are increasing in numbers.
Sage says Game Animal Council, NZ Deerstalkers’ Association (NZDA) and others will be consulted to develop a new framework.
NZDA chief executive Gwyn Thurlow says initial contact between the association and DOC over deer control has been more constructive than it was with tahr.
“All indications are that different people are involved and they are doing a better job, but it is very early on in discussions,” he said.
Hunters were successful with court action against DOC for failing to consult on a planned cull of tahr.
Thurlow says a new control plan for deer must be based on science and research, include community input, given deer are an important source of food and recreation, and reflect the animal distribution and characteristics of each region.
“There is no one size fits all as deer live across many different classes on land,” he said.
Thurlow says previous control plans were not enforced because commercial and recreational hunters kept deer numbers low.
Numbers have increased but he describes the population as abundant.
Whether that equates to being excessive, Thurlow says requires a science-backed answer.
Numbers have increased due to the absence of the heavy culling and commercial pressure of the 1980s and 1990s, but he says hunters want to be included in discussion about proposed control methods.
They will oppose the use of 1080 poison.
“Once you’ve used 1080 in an area, hunters can’t go there for a year or more,” he said.
“It’s what we don’t want. There are better ways.”
