A national hunting competition has seen more than 700 wild goats culled in Nelson Tasman.
Winners of the Department of Conservation (DOC)’s National Wild Goat Hunting Competition were announced on Saturday, along with catch numbers across the country.
DOC wild animals manager Mike Perry says the competition has been a fantastic example of collaboration across hunters, landowners, and conservation partners.
“In the Nelson Tasman area, we saw great engagement with 51 people entering 713 goat tails and five heads through four entry locations - NZDA Nelson, NZDA Golden Bay, Hunting & Fishing Nelson, and DOC Nelson Lakes – Murchison Base,” he says.
Mike says the figures reflect the combined effort of hunters dropping off tails and heads at designated entry points.
“Wild goats can cause significant damage to native forests and farmland, so encouraging hunters to target goats - traditionally a less popular species - can help reduce pressure across New Zealand’s landscapes. Nationally, it was great to see that 75 per cent of participants said they’re more likely to hunt wild goats because of the competition.”
NZDA Nelson branch committee member Patrick Savill organised the competition on behalf of its members this year and says it was well received.
“It was good that it was a trilateral push by DOC, NZDA and Hunting and Fishing,” Patrick says.
“The most tails entered by one of our members was 73,” he says. He says DOC put up some great prizes this year, meaning there were regional winners as well as national winners.
"We had entries from members in Todds Valley all the way through to Murchison.”
Recreational hunting is important to help manage goats, but it’s not often intensive enough on its own to meet biodiversity outcomes.
DOC continues to run targeted wild goat control operations across more than 1 million hectares of public conservation land to protect biodiversity.
“Competitions like this complement that work and strengthen relationships between communities and agencies,” Mike says.
