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Australia & New Zealand Hunting : New Zealand: Controversial heli-hunters may target tahr
on 2011/11/16 22:53:45

Controversial heli-hunters might be transformed into government-sanctioned tahr cullers as part of the Department of Conservation's (DOC) new commercial imperative.

The move is set to infuriate ground-based recreational hunters, who want "heli-slaughter" outlawed.

In its final report on the heli-hunting season, DOC community relations officer Jenny Williams said 13 operators granted one-off permits for 2011 had been charged $199,000 in activity fees. However, a "compensation offset package" would be better than fees.

"Options might include straight culling operations through to aerial animal surveys and vegetation outcome monitoring," the report said. "The department is aware of the financial restraints on its own tahr management programmes and this type of package could offset that pressure if managed prudently."

The department spends between $200,000 and $300,000 a year culling tahr, which were introduced to the South Island high country in the early 20th century to provide trophy hunting for tourists.

Their population has been governed by a special control plan under the Wild Animal Control Act since 1993.

Canterbury conservator Mike Cuddihy said the department wanted to focus on heli-hunters' greater contribution to pest control.

A culling requirement for heli-hunting trophy seekers in the 2011 season yielded "very good results", he said.

"We are more interested in getting this industry to effectively work with ourselves and recreational hunters to keep the population within the limits."

Ground-based hunters often use helicopters to access the remote backcountry, but heli-hunting can involve shooting from the machine or using the chopper to chase and exhaust animals.

New Zealand Deerstalkers' Association chairman Alex McIver, of Rotorua, said the culling argument was Cuddihy's excuse to try to make heli-hunting seem acceptable.

It was "ridiculous" to allow heli-hunting in national parks, he said.

"What the department's actually doing is allowing unethical, inhumane, unsportsmanlike, non-Kiwi recreational hunting activity to happen," he said.

McIver's association said the DOC report showed heli-hunters had broken permit rules this year by not fulfilling cull requirements and by taking trophies from outside designated blocks.

It also revealed that DOC had no compliance system for breaches. Some ground-based hunters withdrew from hard-won hunting block ballots after being told their trip would clash with aerial hunters.

However, Mt Hutt Helicopters operations manager James Cagney said his company deliberately avoided areas in its permit to avoid such conflict. Heli-hunters could, and should, play a more significant role in culling, he said.

"If heli-hunting's done properly it's no less humane or ethical than any form of ground hunting.

"There's certainly stories out there of times gone by of operators that have done unethical things, and there's no excuses for that, but I think that heli-hunting as a whole has tidied its act up."

Forest & Bird conservation advocate Nicola Vallance said employing hunters to cull tahr was "nonsensical" when they had a vested interest in high herd numbers.

The heli-hunting debate takes place against a background of DOC's budget and job cuts, the creation of a commercial business unit and a drive to court business dollars for conservation work.

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