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The reply I received from the Communist Minister responsible. Please note the following is word of mouth from a Kiwi mate. They are not just hitting the Tahr in National Parks, a few outside have been hit as well.

Tēnā koe

Thank you for your letter regarding the control of Himalayan tahr in New Zealand.

While I acknowledge your views I do want to take this opportunity to explain why it is important to control the number of tahr within New Zealand.

Himalayan tahr (tahr) were introduced to New Zealand in the early 1900s for recreational and hunting interests. They are native to the central Himalayan ranges in India and Nepal. With no natural predators in New Zealand, tahr successfully established themselves over much of the central Southern Alps between the Rakaia and Whitcombe rivers (in the north) and the Hunter and Haast rivers (in the south). They can be found on public conservation, private and Crown pastoral lease land.

Tahr are large, herbivorous goat-like animals that feed primarily on alpine tussock grasslands and sub-alpine shrublands. As social animals which group together, tahr are recognised to have had widespread impact on native vegetation in alpine and sub-alpine areas, so control of their numbers is ecologically important.

New Zealand alpine ecosystems evolved without mammalian herbivores, such as tahr. Consequently, many alpine plants have no defence mechanisms, such as toxins or spines, to discourage tahr from eating them. Some plant species, forming part of the tahr diet, are ranked as Threatened or At Risk by the New Zealand Threat Classification System. Large groups of tahr can transform tall tussocks and sub-alpine shrublands to grassy turf or bare ground.

Management of tahr

The management of tahr is governed by a statutory plan, the Himalayan Thar Control Plan 1993, prepared under the Wild Animal Control Act 1977.A key element of the plan is that it sets a maximum population of 10,000 tahr across all land tenures in the tahr feral range. Neither I nor the Department of Conservation have any plans to eradicate tahr across tahr’s feral range. The Department is taking a phased approach to meet the Plan’s objectives. Tahr control is urgent. Without control, the tahr population is at risk of increasing further, undoing the good progress achieved last year.

Population estimates

The department estimates, in autumn 2019, there were approximately 34,500 tahr on public conservation land alone (following three summer seasons of tahr population monitoring). Approximately 11,000 tahr were controlled between July and November 2019 by the department, commercial hunters, and contractors. The population will have since increased due to the intervening breeding season.

Reports of large populations of tahr on private and Crown leasehold land have also been received by the department. Later this year the department will work with Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) to survey tahr populations on Crown pastoral lease land.

The Tahr Control Operational Plan 2020/21

The department’s control work will focus on:

· control outside of the tahr feral range to stop expansion of the geographical range of tahr

· controlling tahr in Aoraki/Mount Cook and Westland/Tai Poutini national parks to the lowest practicable densities to protect and preserve these special places as safe havens for indigenous plants and wildlife.

· controlling high densities of female and juvenile tahr across the tahr feral range to reduce tahr impacts and population spread.

Other work in the tahr programme includes:

· establishing the status and size of tahr populations off public conservation land

· working with Ngāi Tahu to further implement the Treaty partnership in relation to tahr management at a governance level.

· working with Ngāi Tahu, tahr researchers and stakeholders to develop an integrated research and monitoring programme.

The High Court upheld one aspect of the New Zealand Tahr Foundation’s (NZTF) judicial review proceedings. The Court instructed the department to consult further with NZTF and other stakeholders and said the department could undertake half of its proposed control (that is, 125 hours of the planned 250 hours) as it saw fit while the consultation is completed. At this stage, it is too early to say how many tahr will be removed during the scheduled 125 hours of control.

Consultation

The department advises me that it holds two to three Tahr Plan Implementation Liaison Group (TPILG) meetings annually to discuss issues surrounding its implementation of the Plan. In the last two years, the department has engaged individually with stakeholders and the full TPILG during the development of its annual Tahr Control Operational Plan.

Throughout the year, representatives of the department also attend a range of hunter meetings throughout New Zealand.

Impact of the Department’s control work

There are still thousands of tahr available for hunters over thousands of hectares on and off public conservation land. The two national parks represent just 26% of the public conservation land in the tahr range. Tahr also occur on Crown pastoral lease and private land.

The department will also prioritise leaving tahr for recreational hunters in easy to access hunting areas.

In terms of mature bull tahr, I have been advised the department will not target bull tahr outside of the national parks in the Tahr Control Operational Plan 2020/21. There is 425,000 hectares of public conservation land outside of the national parks where bull tahr can be hunted. During its control operations, the department maps the locations where bull tahr are spotted outside of the national parks. This information can be found on the department’s website.

Based on returns provided to the department by concessionaires, the majority of commercial trophy tahr hunting occurs on private and Crown pastoral lease land. The department’s sole focus will be on public conservation land, particularly the national parks.

With New Zealand’s borders remaining closed, there will be limited commercial trophy hunting. The department will be the major form of tahr control during this period.

Where practical, the department advises me that it will explore opportunities to contract professional ground hunters to carry out official control to help support the long-term viability of their businesses.

Helicopter-borne hunting activities have been carried out for a long time in New Zealand. The department’s hunters and contractors are trained and experienced professionals - and like all hunters (ground and aerial), they must first clearly identify their target and ensure safety.

Thank you again for your letter. I hope that the above information and the attached fact sheet respond to the issues you raised.

Nāku noa, nā

Hon. Eugenie Sage

Minister of Conservation

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