Professional Meat Hunters Use Helicopters To Muster Deer

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31382, 30 May 1967, Page 11

Professional Meat Hunters Use Helicopters To Muster Deer

"The Prett” Special Jervlco WELLINGTON, May 29.

Professional meat hunters in New Zealand use helicopters like sheep dogs, shooting, hooting and whistling with sirens, to drive as many as 100 deer to killing areas. Few deer escape, and returns are being remarkably sustained in a “deer bonanza” which is expected to last for at least another year.

Last year the hunters killed at least 60,000 animals for export overseas. They do so well that companies hire helicopter pilots,,at wages of more than £6OOO a year, to fly in their deer killers and muster and fly out their meat According to the head of the noxious animal division of the Forest Service (Mr K. Myers), deer hunters, and other game hunters, are enjoying an unparalled boom. He expects that like the crayfishermen, the rich takings—£B6B,ooo in overseas earnings last year and more this—are temporary. Nine Teams

Investigations made for a report to the Government showed that there were today nine helicopter teams operational in New Zealand, said Mr Myers. Only one of these was in the North Island; all the rest were in the South Island, and mostly in the far south and west Five would probably survive the bonanza’s end. His own men had accompanied one helicopter on a (hoot-up where 75 stags had been mustered. They were mustered by helicopter, and driven from subwlpinejeruh into open tussock areas.

There the shooter with the pilot was dropped to shoot up as many as possible until the deer fled. Then he was picked up again and dropped on a ridge to head oft smaller groups back to the first shooting area. Mr Myers said that his division had investigated reports of machine gun massacres from the air, but he would discount them as sensational. The cost of ammunition for the FN rifles used by the hunters—the same as the latest New Zealand Army issue—was so high that every round had to count Bifleman Landed He understood that there was some shooting of deer from the helicopters, but most of It was done by landing the rifleman from the aircraft to shoot from the ground. Holding 30 rounds, the FN rifles fired so fast on single aimed shots that it was unnecessary to use them as machine-guns, said Mr Myers. Members of the Deer Stalkers’ Association had previously alleged that the FN rifles bought by the meat hunters had to be imported with an interrupter cutting off the automatic Are. This, they said, could be easily removed to make the rifle a machine-gun. Costs Important

Costs were important to the meat hunters, as were their rights to use helicopters for their work, said Mr Myers. He considered that they would not endanger their flying licences by using illegal machine-guns when the use of 1000 rounds would cost them £lOO.

The shooting team of pilot and rifleman would be accompanied by about two or three helpers, said Mr Myers. These men would be mainly concerned with preparing the carcases for airlifting and return to the central depot

I These teams worked on ; country which was regarded I by his service as not hlghi priority erosion country. The . Forest Service was now con- ' centrating on a few watersheds where erosion was a serious danger to, property ; and farmland like the Waimakariri, Hokitika, Tararua, i Ruahine and Urewera. Private Hunters* Bole ! They had left the deer in ■ the hardrock country of L Southland and South Westland ! to the private hunters and ■ the meat hunters, each of whom enjoyed the same rights 1 in an area. Because of its remoteness from civilisation, the deer in this area had been i largely controlled previously : only by the availability of I food. ' Today the helicopter hunt- > era were finding that they s were bettering their economic margin of 10 deer an hour i or 1000 deer a month for each i helicopter in such areas as i the Haast, he said. Like the i rabbit-killer teams in the Wai- . rarapa, the killing averages - were maintained in the I monthly circuits of the catch- ’ ment areas and valley systems ■ of the big South Island rivers. No Seared Deer 1 The companies considered ’ that their sustained success 1 was due to the fact that the - percentage kill was so high under the helicopter musteri tag system. There were no . scared deer to run next time. This also ensured while , the population sustained the i kill rate that ratios eon- , siderably higher than 10 for I each helicopter operating hour , were maintained. Most of the ’ flying time was in carrying earcases from the small kil- > ling zones to tire road head or . headquarters area. i Pigs Trapped i While deer were big busl- ■ sees, the fastest growing game ■ meat industry was in wild i poric, said Mr Myers. Hunters in Southland were now trap-

ping wild pig in hurricane wire traps. These operated like a crayfish pot, letting in the pigs after a bait, but keeping them inside once in. "I have heard of them getting 20 to 30 in the one trap,” he said “I know one firm was looking for an area where it could establish 50 traps.” Also profitable was the wild goat meat business. This had outlets through which £BO,OOO worth had gone overseas in a recent year, to such places as the West Indies, Ceylon and the eastern Mediterranean.