RED-DEER MENACE IN N.Z.

Forest and Bird, Issue 148, 1 May 1963, Page 20

RED-DEER MENACE IN N.Z.

In a broadcast interview on 24 January, Dr. Wodzicki, Director of the Ecological Section of the D.5.1.R., spoke on New Zealand’s problem. For nowhere else in the world, he said, were there comparable numbers of introduced animals within an environment of comparable vegetation. During his recent overseas tour, he had observed damage in the deer forests of Europe, but this vegetation could be restored, because it had developed in the presence of the browsing animals. In New Zealand this was not the case. Our unique vegetation had evolved without such species, and was thus particularly vulnerable to their inroads. Furthermore, the European trees were deciduous, which meant that the period during which browsing animals could damage their foliage was limited to a definite season, giving time also for recovery in the off season. But there could be no such respite for New Zealand’s indigenous vegetation. Here it was open season for browsing animals all the year round, the ample, never-ceasing food supply in its turn allowing numbers to multiply at a fantastic rate in a sort of vicious circle. And it had to be remembered that there were no predators. Dr. Wodzicki next spoke of research as a major requirement for coping with our own peculiar deer problem, and he touched on the various types of research that are at present under way in different parts of the world on this topic at the present time, from Scottish ecological studies to the California research department. A Utah professor was engaged on a study of particular interest to New Zealand; for some areas carried both deer and sheep, a condition also existing in New Zealand. A point emphasised by Dr. Wodzicki was that New Zealand had not only different but also many more problems than other deer-carrying countries, and it was just not possible to make blanket assertions or generalise from findings m other countries. Local research was the answer, and this was in its initial stages in New Zealand. What was needed, summed up Dr. Wodzicki, was “cooperation, cooperation not only of Government departments and foresters, but also of sportsmen, landowners,” and all who had the future welfare of the country at heart. x From Forestry News, Feb. 1963.