Deer control helps to lift takahe numbers

Press, 13 March 1986, Page 15

Deer control helps to lift takahe numbers

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

Government efforts to boost takahe numbers are directed towards reducing the number of animals competing for food rather than reducing the number of predators.

The takahe was rediscovered in the Murchison Mountains of Fiordland in 1951 after having been thought to have become extinct early this century.

The Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Tapsell, whose portfolio includes the Wildlife Service, said the main cause in the decline of takahe numbers between 1960 and 1980 had been competition for food by deer. He was answering a series of questions in Parliament about the takahe. He was asked how deer could be exterminated from two-thirds of the wapiti area and from the Kepler Mountains.

He also was asked what justification there could be for killing or removing weka, while at the same

time permitting opossum and stoat numbers to remain in the area proposed for the relocation of the takahe.

Mr Tapsell said deer control in Fiordland had resulted in a spectacular increase in the quality of the vegetation, and takahe numbers had increased correspondingly during the last three years, from 118 to 180.

Deer could be kept to low densities by helicopter hunting, food shooters, and the use of strategically placed walk-in deer pens.

Stoat predation had contributed to the original decline in takahe numbers, but their impact had been minor compared with the damage done by deer, he said.

The Wildlife Service considered that takahe were able to maintain a viable population in Fiordland with stoats present. Small-scale trapping of stoats had been done in localised areas of the Murchison Mountains but

large-scale trapping was not considered necessary. Widespread weka control was not undertaken, but when weka numbers were high in a particular area and posed a threat to the takahe, measures were taken to reduce numbers there, Mr Tapsell said.

Opossums posed no threat to takahe. The Minister of Forests, Mr Wetere, whose department is responsible for control of wild animals, said there were 25 livedeer capture pens in the Glaisnock Wilderness area of Fiordland National Park.

All were authorised by licence in accordance with the wild animal control plan for the park, and complied with all aspects of the National Parks Act, 1980.

Pens were inspected at the time of their erection, and thereafter regularly, to ensure their compliance with licence conditions, he said.