A NEW APPROACH FOR GAME MANAGEMENT
ROY SLOAN
This article is a generalisation on animal management across New Zealand AND a timely reminder that we need, as hunters, to ask ourselves some tough questions
Do we want a future in NZ for our game? I guess the answer is ‘yes’. Then what do we need to do? Because I suspect if we continue on the same path we are heading down, times are going to get tough.
As hunters, deep down we know what is right and what is wrong. An overpopulated herd of animals – any kind of animals – isn’t healthy. It’s not healthy for the forest and not healthy for the animals. Game animals have been a valuable source of protein since humans housed themselves in caves so we know these critters are survivors. People around NZ have had different experiences with eating game meat – either you like it or you don’t – and from what I have seen that experience, good or bad, can come down to a couple of things: lack of knowledge around butchering and treatment of the meat or simply a skinny, malnourished deer.
Fat animals are better eating and we need to remember the primary reason that we hunt is to feed our people. The cream on top of this is the opportunity to shoot a trophy animal. The management of animals for both outcomes is the same however; we need a healthy environment. But how do we get a healthy environment?
We are bombarded
