Wanaka Deer Destruction Parties

Lake County Mail, Issue 50, 19 May 1948, Page 3

Wanaka Deer Destruction Parties

The Government deer cullers are now leaving their camps for the winter season before the snowfalls in the higher valleys. Some of these men have spent seven months in the mountains seeing no one except when stores are packed irf, or when a call is made at the nearest homestead for mail and newspapers. Working in pairs, their life is an arduous one; but their success is evident by the Jjundles of skins or strings of tails which they pack out. They receive a bonus for skins packed out; but where the country is difficult the tail is sufficient proof of a kill, and a reduced bonus is paid on these. Hunting skill and good territory combined might give a culler a kill of over a thousand deer in the season, and this has been the lot of some this year, while others have ranged between six to eight hundred.

The culler is allowed three rounds of ammunition per kill and with some pride he may slip, by a casual remark, how much he is “up on ammo.”

They tell too' of their successful drives of herds of deer up to the snowline; but sometimes the deer evade certain death by breaking away through some unguarded pass.