Ruapehu eruption ash blamed for 500 deer deaths

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 634, 30 April 1996, Page 5

Ruapehu eruption ash blamed for 500 deer deaths

Ash deposits from lastyear's eruption of Mount Ruapehu may have killed up to 500 deer, ac cording to Target Taupo, the Department of Conservation's hunting magazine. Reports from hunters of dead deer were common throughout the Tongariro, Waipakihi, Tauranga Taupo, Hinemaiaia catchments as well as to a lesser degree in the upper Mohaka catchment. Sustained high densities of deer in parts of the eastern high country over the past decade meant deer condition before the growing season was poor, also partly due to the harsh winter. With this, the significant ash falls at the onset of the growing season meant major stress for deer. A possible secondary effect was the high number of dead slinkies and fawns. Farm deaths Target Taupo states that it was not unrealistic to accept that five per cent or more of the deer herd in the path of the ash could have died. On one large farm 1 000 lambing ewes died and local feral deer had a poorer average nutritional status than farmed sheep at the time. There was some good news reported in the magazine, with early strong growing away from the ash there was some great velvet and better-than-average heads looked on the cards for this year. Also, among 44 red deer from Tongariro Forest autopsied, no tuberculosis was found and the quality of deer and size of some stags suggested some good heads would be around in autumn. There was an increase in hunter activity in the Hauhangatahi wilderness area, following DoG's notification of the intention to allow limited wild animal recovery there in May. The area seemed to have attracted some of the hunters displaced by the ash in the western Kaimanawa Forest Park. Possum control in the Ohakune area seems to have allowed for an improvement in forest health and thus a general increase in deer size, indicated by 48 deer jaws provided from the area.