Landscapes

[coobie]

Wow. Those are real pretty, I am almost always blown away by the scale of your landscapes.. everything looks big BIG when you grow up on an island!!
Big woods big water and big groups of deer, too by your photo.. what type are they? We have a few different breeds here, mainly Red deer and Fallow deer around here. Whitetail on Stewart Island.
the Fallow deer around the local area are a unusual dark strain, like a big dark billygoat almost. Really hard to stalk up on, easier still hunting with a book.

Good old Michigan whitetail deer.

 

[olPete]

Good old Michigan whitetail deer.

Thought they were... Are you feeding them, me and my Dad went hunting on Stewart Island for then about 20 years ago, they nickname 'em 'the grey ghosts' down there. They are everywhere but nowhere, all at once. Saw plenty but took none.

 

[coobie]

Thought they were... Are you feeding them, me and my Dad went hunting on Stewart Island for then about 20 years ago, they nickname 'em 'the grey ghosts' down there. They are everywhere but nowhere, all at once. Saw plenty but took none.

Yes,food plots full of clover.

 

[olPete]

Yes,food plots full of clover.

Me and dad used to give them a salt/mineral block, when there was plenty of other food around. Don't know if it's legal as such, here, but it fills the freezer easier when you know where they come to. A 50 pound block would last about a month when the deer were everywhere. Our government poisons to keep them and possums in check, sad state of affairs. Kills birds, hunters dogs, everything- the bush just rattles after they've dropped poison

 

[redman135]

olPete ,No bush ,no birds no nothing.You can repopulate the bush but if the opposums are left to run loose they will wipe out the entire ecosystem species by species. When the southern rata was wiped out you lost 17 other species with it that were dependant on the southern rata.
1080 poison is a bad choice, but the other choices are worse.
I lived on a farm in the King Country, and around every area of bush you could see opposum pads every 100 metres, and some were veritable highways(most pads were 5" wide, the big ones were up to 12" wide.), there were so many opposums using them. It was nothing to go through 2 or 3 packets of ammo and be home by 10 pm(left at 8pm).
The poison drops ended that. No loss.
As for the dogs I took the recommended precautions and had no trouble, and I didn't loose any stock either. There are not any deer here.
It is poor choices all round. No poison = no bush, the alternatives are to costly without a major budget increase or technological change.
Automated self resetting traps are still in need of further development.

 

[olPete]

olPete ,No bush ,no birds no nothing.You can repopulate the bush but if the opposums are left to run loose they will wipe out the entire ecosystem species by species. When the southern rata was wiped out you lost 17 other species with it that were dependant on the southern rata.
1080 poison is a bad choice, but the other choices are worse.
I lived on a farm in the King Country, and around every area of bush you could see opposum pads every 100 metres, and some were veritable highways(most pads were 5" wide, the big ones were up to 12" wide.), there were so many opposums using them. It was nothing to go through 2 or 3 packets of ammo and be home by 10 pm(left at 8pm).
The poison drops ended that. No loss.
As for the dogs I took the recommended precautions and had no trouble, and I didn't loose any stock either. There are not any deer here.
It is poor choices all round. No poison = no bush, the alternatives are to costly without a major budget increase or technological change.
Automated self resetting traps are still in need of further development.

Yep, it's just a shame that there aren't more people out laying lines instead of the big drops of 1080 that 'have to happen instead', would be good employment for a fair few people down these ways. With all the anti's, they can't exactly advertise when they're going to drop!
At least it puts the price of fur up.

 

[redman135]

The anti fur people killed the market. With no more trapping and poisoning(cyanide) the oposum numbers skyrocketed. A classic example of the law of unintended consequences.

 

[ovrszd]

Yep, we see that here as well.

An example of the opposite affect here was the use of DDT. We almost caused the demise of our National Bird, the Bald Eagle by it's use.

In the scheme of things Mankind has an immediate and dramatic affect on nature. Sometimes good, sometimes bad.

I'm not a "tree hugger" by any means. But I respect the results of my actions on my farm.

 

[olPete]

I'm bordering on being a tree hugger. I've always had an incredible curiosity and sense of connection with the natural world.
It's a hard one for NZ, the pest control with poison. I do believe there are better poisons they could be using, but the powers-that-be aren't looking for an answer because they found one.. I guess that's governments for you!
Redman135 is correct, the other choices are worse.
We have a really great track record when it comes to introduced species wreaking havoc in NZ, people included.. but also including: rats pigs cats mice deer possums ferrets stoats rabbits and hares.. gorse broom and a myriad of other plant species. All seem to just love it here!!

 

[ovrszd]

Pete, mankind hasn't been very considerate of it's damage to Mother Earth as it migrated around, taking all of it's favorite species with it.......

Our Forefathers thought we needed the English Sparrow and Starling here in America. Both a total pest and burden to local species of birds.