An eight week attack on feral goats has been launched by the Department of Conservation and the New Zealand Deerstalkers Association.
The National Wild Goat Hunting Competition is a nationwide initiative to raise awareness of the environmental and agricultural damage caused by wild goats.
The competition, running to November 26, encourages hunters and landowners to tackle the growing wild goat population.
Goats feast on native plants and can quickly destroy vegetation.
Ten landowners have registered their interest with the competition to get help reducing wild goat numbers on their land.
“We want to see wild goat hunting become a regular feature in the hunting calendar,” Doc ‘s Wild Animals Manager Mike Perry said.
There is a host of areas where the hunt will take placed in King Country and, in Waikato, at the Wairenga scenic reserve (Bridal Veil Falls) where only bow hunting will be permitted.
Other sites include the 80-ha Mangaotaki reserve near Te Kūiti, two reserves near Awakino, three reserves near Kawhia and the Mangaokewa reserve in Pureora. Game there also includes deer and goats.
The competition offers more than $70,000 in prizes.
Feral goats are a common sight on land bordering state highways in parts of the country – notably Taranaki. They were introduce 250 years ago when Captain James Cook released a number in the Marlborough Sounds during his second voyage to New Zealand. Other explorers, whalers and sealers added to the population.
Work to control their numbers began in the 1930s. They now occupy about 14 per cent of the country are thought to number several hundred thousand
Feral goats present a threat to native plants. Photo: Waikato Regional Council
.
