1. WHAT FUTURE FOR WAPITI, HIMALAYAN TAHR?

Forest and Bird, Volume 15, Issue 4, 1 November 1984, Page 28

1. WHAT FUTURE FOR WAPITI, HIMALAYAN TAHR?

The Fiordland National Park Wild Animal Control Plan was approved by the Government in May. The plan allows wapiti to remain in the special area of the park for at least another five years during which time they will be controlled, primarily by recreational hunters, at levels which keep damage to the natural vegetation at an acceptable level. The plan has been widely recognised as a compromise between hunting and conservation interests. Unfortunately a group of Southland deerstalkers are now

opposing the plan and seeking to relax it to permit ‘‘enrichment"’ of the wild wapiti herd and to restrict all year round access by foot hunters so the herd can build up. Such proposals run counter not only to National Parks policy but, we believe, also to Deerstalkers Association national policy. Our Society is urging the Minister of Forests to affirm his support for the operative control plan. Meanwhile, the Government is developing a policy on Himalayan tahr based on results from a preliminary Forest Service census which puts the population of these mountain goats at a mere 1-2,000 animals. Extermination, if feasible, is clearly an option favoured by our Society, and may well prove the most cost-effective option. Failing this we favour control which maintains tahr numbers at their present low levels to allow continued recovery of the magnificent alpine vegetation of the central Southern Alps.