DEER-NEW ZEALAND’S ENEMY NO. 1.

Forest and Bird, Issue 37, 1 August 1935, Page 3

DEER-NEW ZEALAND’S ENEMY NO. 1.

Natural Increase Exceeds Kills.

There is plenty of indisputable evidence that deer are New Zealand’s Enemy No. 1. In some forests, especially the girdle of Mt. Egmont, wild goats are the main menace, but the districts threatened by hordes of deer are of much greater area.

The introduction of rabbits has proved a very costly blunder, but bad as the rabbit is as a destroyer it has to take second place to deer. Why? Well, the rabbit makes its habitat in country that is easily accessible. Experience has proved that strict enforcement of existing laws can keep this nuisance under control. A few years ago, when the prices of skins soared to high points, this animal was practically cleaned out of some thickly-infested parts of Otago and Southland.

It is not so easy to wage successful war on deer, which' can take refuge in very rough country. They

are like the plundering old-time barons of England who could retire to strong castles when pressed by their enemies.

Always the deer are bringing death nearer to forests, on which the welfare of large tracts of farming country is absolutely dependent. They are eating out the undergrowth and so preventing regeneration; they are also killing adult trees. They are spoiling the forest floor—changing it from a sponge, a natural regulator of water-flow, into a waste of rubble. When those forests cease

to be protective of the high-country soil, which is a comparatively thin layer, resting on rock, the lowlands will be smitten with irreparable disaster.

A good few thousands of the pests have been killed during the past three years in limited areas, but the tally of the slain would be far short of the natural increase, because those alien animals have no natural enemies in the forests. Sir Alexander Young (Minister of Internal Affairs), with a full knowledge of the havoc wrought by deer, has rightly declared a war of extermination against them, but he lacks the funds for the

necessary large-scale operations.

The time has come for the Government to recognise properly its responsibility to the present population of New Zealand and to posterity. An effective onset against deer—a great campaign to save the vitally necessary forests— is far more important to the Dominion than anything else that is visible in the Government’s programme.

The photographs showing the guilt of deer as deadly enemies of New Zealand were taken by the State Forest Service.