NZ Hunter Education | Module 1

NZ Hunter Education Course:

Module 1: HISTORY

A brief history of game animals in New Zealand

New Zealand has only one indigenous mammal, a bat, and the first settlers had to make do with hunting pigs, first introduced by Captain Cook, until some far sighted pioneers had a vision to introduce game from the old country. One such settler wrote to Colonel William Wakefield of the New Zealand Company, just seven years after the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, pointing out the suitability of New Zealand for deer. We have that unknown settler to thank for what subsequently happened. Following the receipt of this letter, Wakefield in turn wrote to the directors of his company as follows:

“It would be a most advantageous and attractive thing if some ‘Scotch’ proprietors would send some Red deer to be turned out here. In the course of a few years there is no doubt they would increase largely. The sport of hunting would be highly attractive and would conduce to the breed of horses, and afford a manly amusement to the young colonialists, fitting them for the more serious life of stock-keeping and wool growing.”

Early Liberations

Such were the intentions of those who were behind the farsighted introduction of game animals into New Zealand. In 1851 two Red deer, a stag and a hind, were liberated with 220 further liberations of Red deer up until 1923.

Liberations of other deer species were to follow:

1864 - Fallow deer
1873 - Sambar
1904 - Sika
1905 - Whitetail and Wapiti
1908 - Rusa
1910 - Moose
1904 - Tahr
1907 - Chamois

Mule deer, Axis deer and even Bharal or Blue sheep were also released but sadly these liberations were unsuccessful.

Rabbits were first released in 1866, quickly growing to plague proportions. Game birds such as quail were also released in the latter part of the 18th century.

Early Days

The hunting scene in New Zealand has seen immense changes from those early days when there was total protection on all big game herds, to licences to hunt being issued for a select few, through to where deer became over populated in some areas.

Big game animals were culled and then hunted for skins.

Commercial Hunting Era

Then came the era of commercial hunting in the 1960’s and suddenly deer had great commercial value. There were venison buyers in every town and most hunters shot every deer they saw and then sold them. They were regarded as pests by some and hunters were seen only as allies in their destruction.

Helicopter hunting took this commercialisation of hunting to a new level. Whereas foot hunters could only cover a minimal amount of country, helicopters penetrated every area of New Zealand, both where they had legal and illegal access. This was then followed by live capture when the deer farming industry began to boom.

Since 2000

Since the turn of the century we have seen massive changes in the hunting scene in New Zealand and we are beginning to accept these introduced big game species as a valued resource to be respected by hunters and others alike. Most hunting now is purely for recreation, rather than for economic gain from the sale of the animal.