New Zealand Tahr Foundation

Most of you will be aware by now that the Minister of Conservation has Himalayan tahr well and truly in her sights. Make no mistake, if she has her way, it will be the end of tahr hunting as we know it!

She has instructed her department to cull 17,500 tahr on top of the almost 3000 already culled in the last couple of months, and also she intends to reduce the tahr density in Mt Cook and Westland National Parks to zero. She wants her department to cull around 25,000 to 30,000 tahr by the middle of next year, out of what they are saying is an estimated population of around 35,000 with an error margin between 17,000 and 50,000.

What do we have left if there is only 25,000 to begin with?

They intend to shoot thousands of bulls worth an estimated $14,000 each to the New Zealand economy. This will cost our country tens of millions of dollars and is without doubt the destruction of tahr hunting in New Zealand as we know it.

For what?

Tahr have never forced a New Zealand plant species into extinction. Yes, the population needs to be properly managed so as to allow plants to regenerate, but certainly not in the "shoot from the hip" approach the Minister is implementing. There is no urgency to this. There will not be a sudden explosion, they only have one young a year, bulls don't breed and recruitment rate is not 100%. Not to mention that hunting pressure is ongoing and increasing!!

The only way we are going to stop this Minister from carrying this out and destroying more than 100 years of New Zealand heritage and culture, is by all hunters and outdoor enthusiasts uniting together and making our voices heard by politicians, local and national level. But this will not stop the slaughter before the damage is done, she starts in less than two weeks.

The New Zealand Tahr Foundation is seeking a court injunction to have the culling stopped while the GAC puts together an alternative proposal to achieve sensible herd reduction spread over 3 years to preserve the alpine vegetation without totally destroying the tahr hunting resource.

As the minister noted July 16th on TV1's Sunday program: "we are a democracy, so we need to consult, we need to ensure we have all the facts so that we have a clear workable plan." Her plan for tahr is not workable, they do not have all the facts, they have not consulted and it’s clear the minister has a different rule for hunters.