Deer Wars

Red deer run rampant across the high country in New Zealand, causing extensive environmental damage. A 50-year effort to control the invasive animal gets underway.

By the 1930's the deer population in New Zealand was out of control and causing serious environmental damage through grazing, severe soil erosion and slips from the thousands of hooves ripping up the ground. Even today you can find deer trails several feet deep cross...

The elimination strategy hasn't worked. In 20 years, the cullers have shot perhaps 10% of the deer. It's time to up the ante.

By the early fifties, it's become apparent that the deer elimination strategy isn't working. One report estimates that in 20 years the cullers have shot just 10% of the deer.

So, in 1956, the well-funded Forest Service takes over the deer control programme building a network of huts (the basis of tod...

Suddenly everyone wants to be a culler but who will make the cut?

Suddenly everyone wants to be a culler but who will make the cut? Books about culling start to attract all sorts of men to the job. But while some are experienced shooters, others are bank clerks or shop managers with no experience in the bush.

Applicants from all over New Zealand try out for a rigorous and no nonsense six week course in Marlborough run by the NZ Fores...

The arrival of helicopters turns the culling business on its head. Hunters shoot deer from the air and with big money to be made, venison recovery will never be the same.

It's the early 1960s and helicopters have turned the culling business on its head. Aerial hunters are shooting 150 or more deer a day, chasing big profits but courting incredible dangers.

With low fuel prices and venison selling for a pound a pound, this is an ...

Shooting from choppers is a game changer but teams are learning from scratch, working at break-neck pace in such dangerous terrain that an accident is always on the cards.

Shooting deer from choppers may be a game changer but everyone is learning from scratch. Working in such dangerous terrain, an accident is always on the cards. As shooter Jeff Carter puts it, "there were no margins for error."

Pioneering pilot Tim Wallis ...

The mid 1960's are the golden years for aerial hunters. Venison prices are high, fuel costs low and there seems no end to the deer. But something has to change.

The numbers of animals are now dwindling. Deer start to become wise to the danger of choppers and hide in the forest, laying down in the tussock or rocks or change their feeding patterns so they only come out at night.

It becomes harder to find deer and harder to cover flying...

By the mid 70's things were about to change dramatically. The hunters had become so efficient they were shooting themselves out of a job.

From 1967 on, businessman Tim Wallis had exclusive hunting rights to all of Fiordland National Park and was taking out deer in their thousands.

Resentment from other operators at being excluded came to a head in 1973 in the so-called Helicopter Wars with constant poaching in the park. It went too f...

The success of live capture and the skyrocketing prices inevitably encourage poaching.

The success of live capture and the skyrocketing prices in the mid 70's (up to $4-5,000 per animal) inevitably encourage poaching.

Opotiki-based Milton Kuri sums it up well; "I used to wake up in the morning and open your arms up wide and whatever was out in front of you was all yours, and that's how you looked at it."

Poaching w...

The era of live deer capture had an aura of glamour to it. But the reality for those involved was very different.

The era of live deer capture had an aura of glamour to it, much as ground hunting and aerial venison hunting had previously.

But the reality for those involved was much different. Families lost their fathers. Wives lost their husbands. Some such as pilot Dave Richardson carried lifelong injuries suffered in crashes.

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