Fiordland National Park - Helicopter Hunting

Helicopter Hunting

Red deer were introduced to New Zealand in the 1850s and they subsequently colonised the Fiordland Park area.{Banwell, D. 2001} By the 1920s, the large herds of wild deer in the NZ back country competing with sheep and cattle for feed resulted in pressure on the NZ government from the farming community, and deer cullers were employed by the Internal Affairs department to indiscriminately shoot deer in an effort to reduce the population. Costs were recouped from the sale of deer hides.

During the early 1960s, an international market for wild venison was established, and with no restrictions on hunting, market hunters established themselves in the rugged park country and used pack horses, jetboats and fixed wing aircraft to get the carcasses out to market. Experiments with shooting wild deer from helicopters were highly successful and a competitive industry was based on this technique. By the late 1970s, the deer population in Fiordland had been severely reduced, and combined with a flourishing deer farming industry this has reduced the impact of aerial hunting over the National Park.

Market hunting from helicopters continues today in a reduced fashion, with the largest market being Germany. The NZ government uses helicopters to poison the deer and possum population with aerial dropping of large volumes of 1080 poison, despite some public opposition to the indiscriminate use of such poisons.