HARD STALKING

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1024, 15 July 1930, Page 14

HARD STALKING

HUNTING DEER ON RANGITOTO KEEPING HERDS DOWN By dint of hard stalking the deer herds on Rangitoto Island have been reduced to about one-third of their numbers of three years ago. The Domain Board controlling the island somo time ago licensed two wellknown deer stalkers to accomplish that end, and their efforts have proved quite successful. The herds were found to be destroying much of the natural vegetation on the island, which is quite bare of grass. These herds, which were estimated to number about 150 anmials three years ago, are descendants of Highland deer, which the Keid Bros, brought to Motutapu about 45 years ago. When King George visited New Zealand in 1901 he had a successful day's stalking on Motutapu. Rangitoto and Motutapu Islands are connected by land when the tide ebbs, and the deer gradually forsook the relatively open pasture of Motutapu for the better cover of Rangitoto where, in comparative security, they rapidly increased in numbers. Stalking on Rangitoto, with its almost impassable lava fields, is verytrying work. The deer have developed a goat-like agility in scamping over the lava ridges, and though their spoor may be seen on the new roadway, the stalker generally has to penetrate a mile of rough country to get a chance of a shot. One stalker, by dint of weekly effort, secured 70 animals in three years, a few of them possessing really good heads, which have been mounted. In colour the animals range from black to very light fawn.

Owing to the risk to the public from the use of firearms in the Domain, the controlling authority has declined to issue licences for stalking except to two men who have proved their skill both in culling the herds and in safeguarding the public. With more than 5,600 acres of broken rocky country to roam over, thd remaining animals are almost immune, and it is noticeable that areas where deer had destroyed the undergrowth are now showing new plant growth.