THAR “ARE IN SOUTHERN ALPS TO STAY”

Press, Volume C, Issue 29602, 26 August 1961, Page 14

THAR “ARE IN SOUTHERN ALPS TO STAY”

Himalayan thar were in the Southern Alps to stay. • and tihe Government should ! realise that extermination i attempts were useless, said i two members of the New ! Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association, Messrs J. B. Heniderson and J. A. Aaiderson, i-in a paper presented to the tenth Pacific Science Congress in Honolulu this week. Sportsmen from all parts of the world were showing an increasing interest in the New Zealand thar herd, and the big bull, with his fine long horns and magnificent winter skin, ranked as a prize trophy. Although 21.000 thar had been shot since 1930 in New Zealand, the little that was known about their numbers suggested that costly extermination attempts had not met with success.

Thar still inhabited the areas in which they were first liberated 60 years ago, and had spread over a long, high portion of the Southern Alps.

“The authors are unaware of any sizeable area having held thar and subsequently losing them completely,” said Messrs Henderson and Anderson. “The pattern of spread appears to be a slow dispersal of the early mature age groups to adjacent suitable habitat that is unoccupied. “No Information” “The period from 1930 to the present day in which the current Government policy on extermination has been in operation against chamois, deer and thar has yielded a kill of more than 21.000 thar, but no information on which an interpretation of figures can be made.

“Any objective other than extermination has never been tolerated, and thus it can be said that no true approach towards management has been attempted. The argument that time cannot be spent investigating animals scientifically when serious erosion problems exist, would be more convincing if it were not repeated so regularly and with so little avail. “The net result has been 30 years of effort and expenditure and practically nothing to show for it. There could well be more thar living today in New Zealand than in 1930, but there are no recorded figures, except of successive kill tallies.

“The practice has always appeared to be to kill the greatest number of animals in the shortest possible time. This has inevitably ruled out any question of scientific control of the breeding population, and has resulted in random killing methods being used.” Use of Poison Since 1957 techniques had been sought which would supersede the man with the rifle, both in efficiency and cost an animal killed. In 1958 the use of aerial broadcasting of baits containing sodium monofluoroacetate (1080) was commenced against deer. Similar poison baits had I been air-dropped for thar on the Glentanner station, near Mount Cook, a sheep run leased to a private runholder by the Crown. A high degree of success had been claimed from this operation, but lack of any published data prevented the possibility of substantiating the claim, said Messrs Henderson and Anderson. The principle of shooting or poisoning first and no questions asked was a principal obstacle to proper management of thar and, indeed, ail other introduced big game species in New Zealand. There was a lack of proper ecological data concerning the habits, distribution, and population trends of all big game animals. “It is contended that thar will never be eliminated from their New Zealand habitat. Although extremely heavy shooting for a prolonged period could be pictured as having significant and tasting effects on the

herds, the nature of the ■rangelands will preclude hunters being in all the inaccessible portions at the same time.

“With a policy of selective control in place of random shooting, the great and steadily growing ranks of organised sportsmen could be integrated into schemes for reducing the numbers of breeding feimale thar. Here control could be effected, as the breeding females are grouped most conveniently at lower ranges than the bulls.”