Hunting is part of New Zealand’s outdoor heritage. For many people, it’s how they were first introduced to the bush. Early starts, learning to read the land and weather, the thrill of the chase, spending time with friends and family, passing knowledge down through generations, and enjoying the harvest.
Hunting also offers something more. It’s a way to connect with nature, to understand the places we care about, and to play a part in protecting them for the future.
Seeing the forest up close
When you’re hunting, you see animal sign, hear birdsong, and notice where the good feed and habitat is, or isn’t. This is naturing. Many hunters can tell which areas are recovering, and which are under pressure from browsing wild animals like deer and goats. Hunters’ observations often match what monitoring shows: where browsing is high, the forest is less diverse and preferred plants struggle to regenerate; where deer numbers are lower, those same plants recover 1–3. Hunters also see that reflected in the condition of the animals they harvest, animals are in better condition in when numbers are low.
That observation is one reason many hunters value healthy ecosystems and support conservation outcomes. Across the country, hunters already give back in practical ways by trapping predators, maintaining huts, reporting wild animal sightings, and contributing to local conservation projects.
For many, hunting is both recreation and stewardship.
The role hunters can play
Introduced wild animals such as deer, pigs, tahr, and goats are becoming more widespread and abundant across New Zealand. When numbers are high, they browse heavily on seedlings and understory plants. Over time, this can change forest structure and reduce the ability of native plants to regenerate and replenish the canopy. This then puts pressure on the habitats our native species depend on.
Recreational hunters help reduce numbers across many parts of the country. More than 7 million hectares of public conservation land is available for hunting, and hunter effort plays a part in managing wild animal numbers across this wider landscape.
But there’s an important reality to be clear about. Recreational hunting on its own isn’t enough to reduce animal numbers to levels that protect forest health in many areas. Research and expert commentary in New Zealand indicate relying on recreational hunting alone, without additional targeted control, often isn’t sufficient to reduce animals to low numbers that allow species preferred by introduced wild deer and goats to regenerate in our forests. It’s not a criticism of hunters. It reflects the scale of the ecological challenge.
In our own monitoring, sites with high deer numbers, like Ruahine Forest Park, show clear signs of browsing pressure on key plant species.
Why DOC needs to do intensive, targeted management
Some populations of introduced wild animals, particularly wild deer, are breeding faster than they’re being hunted. Current estimates suggest there are over 1 million wild deer in New Zealand. With a reproductive rate of around 20-30%, that means more than 300,000 new wild deer are added to the population each year. It takes a coordinated effort to keep numbers at levels that protect forest health. In many areas, the annual offtake needed just to stop populations growing is beyond what recreational hunting can achieve on its own. That’s why collective, targeted work is needed in high priority places to make a difference.
DOC focuses intensive management on around 1.4 million hectares of high-priority conservation land, where biodiversity values are highest. Including, about 1.2 million hectares where the aim is to reduce browsing pressure from wild goats at priority sites.
Healthy forests aren’t just about trees. They provide food and shelter for birds, insects, and other native species. Every plant and animal plays a role in keeping ecosystems balanced and more resilient to changing conditions, including climate change. When introduced wild animals browse heavily, key plants struggle to survive, and the animals that depend on them are affected. Protecting biodiversity ensures these ecosystems can continue to function, thrive, and be enjoyed by future generations.
In these areas, the level of control needed is beyond what recreational hunting alone can usually achieve. That’s why New Zealand needs to use a mix of tools, selected to suit the location, terrain, and ecological values involved:
- Professional ground hunting – trained teams targeting specific populations in specific areas
- Aerial control – necessary in remote and rugged areas
- Exclusion fencing – to protect sensitive ecological sites
- Management hunts – community-led management hunting projects that contribute to the overall effort to manage animals
- Commercial Wild Animal Recovery Operations (WARO) – as part of wider management and a contribution to reducing numbers
- Recreational hunting – as part of wider management and a contribution to reducing numbers
All of these tools are used together where and when they’re needed. No single approach will work everywhere.
We need to use a mosaic approach, applying different tools in different places in a coordinated manner. In some areas, sustained and intensive work is required over many years to reduce browsing pressure to levels that allow high priority forests to recover. In some locations, management may include fencing to protect sensitive ecological or land-use values by keeping animals out. In other areas, recreational hunting, or commercial recovery can contribute to reducing numbers across the wider landscape.
Working together for healthy forests
The message is straightforward: hunters are part of the solution and so is targeted DOC management. Protecting New Zealand’s landscapes requires a mix of approaches informed by monitoring and science. Many of DOC’s efforts also involve iwi and hapū, hunters, and local communities working together to get better outcomes for biodiversity.
For example, in Molesworth’s ecologically sensitive Turk’s Head area, we teamed up with volunteers from the Marlborough NZ Deerstalkers Association to give wild goat control a real lift. With us providing coordination, some helicopter support and ammunition, the wide-open country became the perfect place for recreational hunters to make a meaningful contribution. In just a few days, volunteers removed more than 1,000 goats, and our DOC team followed soon after also removing over 1000. Working side by side in the right terrain, this combined effort made a noticeable dent in goat numbers and is part of ongoing work aiming to ease pressure on the rare plants and fragile landscapes that make Molesworth so special.
Get outdoors. Go hunting. Make sure you have a permit. Enjoy the places you care about and be part of looking after them, so nature and everything that depends on it can thrive. And if every hunter knocks over just a few extra animals while they’re out, maybe one for the freezer and one for the forest, it can help reduce numbers across the wider landscape.
Get outdoors. Hunt. Help nature.
References
1. Nugent, G., Forsyth, D. M., Smith-Flueck, J.-A. M. & Latham, A. D. M. Non-Native Deer: Origins, Status, Impacts, and Management. in Deer of the World: Ecology, Conservation and Management (eds Melletti, M. & Focardi, S.) 887–912 (Springer Nature Switzerland, Cham, 2025). doi:10.1007/978-3-031-17756-9_60.
2. Tanentzap, A. J. et al. Landscape‐level vegetation recovery from herbivory: progress after four decades of invasive red deer control. (2009).
3. Nugent, G., Fraser, W. & Sweetapple, P. Top down or bottom up? Comparing the impacts of introduced arboreal possums and ‘terrestrial’ ruminants on native forests in New Zealand. Biological Conservation 99, 65–79 (2001).
4. Allen, K. et al. Long‐term exclusion of invasive ungulates alters tree recruitment and functional traits but not total forest carbon. Ecological Applications 33, e2836 (2023).
5. Latham, A. D. M. & Nugent, G. Introduction, impacts, and management of non-native deer and other hunted ungulates in New Zealand. Journal of Japan Deer Studies 2017, 41–57 (2017).
6. Fraser, W. The Effect of Recreational Hunters on Deer Populations in Pureora Conservation Park. Science for Conservation 38 (1996).
7. Nugent, G. & Choquenot, D. Comparing cost-effectiveness of commercial harvesting, state-funded culling, and recreational deer hunting in New Zealand. Wildlife Society Bulletin 32, 481–492 (2004).
8. Fraser, K. W. Status and Conservation Role of Recreational Hunting on Conservation Land.
9. Forsyth, D. M., Allen, R. B., Marburg, A. E., MacKenzie, D. I. & Douglas, M. J. Population dynamics and resource use of red deer after release from harvesting in New Zealand. New Zealand journal of ecology 277–287 (2010).
A useful step would be for DoC to allow a more permissive ( but not a free-for-all) helicopter landing regime. Currently have perverse situation where AATH operators can do their thing on PCL while rec hunters can’t do the same. So addressing that would help, both by facilitating improved access and as a demonstration that DoC were genuinely committed to working with hunters.
And have to observe that there is a certain irony in quoting the Ruahine as a problem area while recent history shows what a crap job DoC have done there preserving foot access across adjoining properties.
Its obvious to the wider hunting community yet you haven’t mentioned it, numbers began increasing once semis were prohibited
Would DOC consider writing a letter of recommendation to the FSA on behalf of vetted recreational hunters who want to help do pest control but are unable to do it effectively due to the restrictions of getting a pest endorsement?
It would save money as you wouldn’t have to hire pest controllers and what they charge, plus helicopter expenses etc
Allow helicopter access into sites in national parks for a start , where are these alarming animal numbers on doc land ?? Most deer numbers are around towns where no one can shoot because of built up houses ..
deer numbers arnt out of control on doc land
It’s all a balance. I have hunted for 65 years . Some off my pig dogs where poison bry secondry 1080 drops. I have hunted bush where there was great bird life then herd silence after a 1080 drop. So I believe 1080 is not the answer. My pig dogs suffered the cruelest death seen with my own eyes. Now I own a block that backs on 2 forest and bird trust land have found when goats are culled and left 2 rot the pig number rise my paddocks get all rooted up worse after a goat cull. Pluss goat is good meat 2 eat . I think if there was no 1080 and deer and goats could be taken out by choppers and on foot . And meat then could be sold at higher price like organic products.
With regard to access to DOC conservation areas, I tend to agree that where there is an Easement over private land where permission from landowner has to be approved. I realize there are times like lambing when the easement needs to be closed but there are landowners who will NOT grant permission as the DOC blocks and their land are used for Guided Trophy hunting with the landowner being paid per trophy! DOC need to sort out access through the tenure review process so access is always available then maybe the animals won’t be “farmed” for the benefit of a few.
If the “acess” is a legal “paper road,” that is a road which was surveyed and defined on survey plans for future development, but was never built, any member of the public can access that paper road, even though it may appear to be part of a private farm. Often landowners will place false signage on paper roads which say “Private Property, No Access!” But these are false. The trick is to study the survey maps, use a GPS app to ensure you stay on the paper road and be respectful and polite to the land owner.
I have just come back from a helicopter drop off hunt in a WARO area and saw lots of deer so no wonder non WARO ,the likes of Nelson tops is over-run with low quality animals and poor antlers.
Luckily the increase in sales of wild venison to Europe and USA should make helicopter hunting more profitable and reduce the population.Thermal scopes not allowed in DOC country are making the culling elsewhere highly effective. Conclusion: Only when it pays to recover derr will we get control.
Im pretty sure the Moa were a grazing animal long before introduced species. It would seem that our forests are meant to be grazed.
Humans have consistently been the biggest threat to deforestation.
I have a resource consented batch on DoC managed estate during the whitebait season. The area is heavily populated with red deer, we hunt the area during the whitebait seasonbut the cost that DoC puts on us for the management of the lease is becoming too high.
Yet another hurdle put in front of hunters!
We often get questions about moa and whether introduced deer are just filling the gap they left behind. It’s a great question—but the answer is no.
New Zealand’s native plants evolved alongside moa, which were browsers. Moa and native plants coexisted for thousands of years without significantly changing our forests. In fact, when moa were here, there were more plant species that deer prefer today—showing moa didn’t wipe them out. It is also estimated that the density and number of wild deer far outweigh the number of moa that were once in New Zealand.
Introduced wild animals, like deer, are different. They’re changing the types of plants in our forests and alpine habitats, and simplifying our once diverse ecosystems. These impacts are clear in our monitoring reports.
Read about the impacts of introduced deer and extinct moa on New Zealand ecosystem in this New Zealand Ecological Sociaety research paper. Predator Free NZ also explores this question in Moa vs Deer – are they so different?
The sponsored goat hunts you organise are unethical. It speaks volumes when you as an organization only posted provisions in the animal welfare act protecting wild animals from cruelty and hunting ethically when prompted. Conservation need not be cruel .
Kia ora, thanks for raising your concerns.
We take animal welfare seriously. We do not condone any behaviour that violates hunting regulations, the Animal Welfare Act 1999, or our own standards for safe, ethical, and humane hunting. All participants are required to hunt legally and humanely, follow the conditions of their hunting permits, to comply with sections 30A and 30B of the Act, which prohibit wilfully or recklessly illtreating animals.
The competition promotes responsible behaviour in our advertising and communications. Hunters must identify their target beyond doubt and avoid unsafe shots. We also expect hunters to respect landowners, follow access conditions, and act with integrity toward both people and animals.
Wild goats cause significant damage to native plants, habitats, and farmland, and any control work, whether carried out by professionals or recreational hunters, must meet animal welfare standards.
If you ever see or suspect unethical behaviour, it’s important that it’s reported. Anyone can contact the MPI animal welfare hotline (0800 00 83 83) at any time, and compliance inspectors will follow up.
It would be really helpful if you could post links to the studies you cite. Some are quite obscure.
As a life-long and still active hunter (nearly 80 years old) and conservationist, I am very concerned about both the spread and density of deer over the whole country. There are now red deer throughout the North Island when the central lowlands, Raukumara and Northland were deer-free when I was a young man. There are now fallow “everywhere” due to both accidental escapes and intentional releases. And its still actively happening.
The reality is that deer numbers will never be contained, let alone reduced, without shoot-to-kill-to-waste aerial hunting. It would be great if someone could find a useful solution for the produce, but I doubt it.
Thanks for sharing your experience. You’re right that deer numbers and spread have increased, and that this puts real pressure on native ecosystems. Our priority in this work is conservation outcomes. While meat recovery is ideal where it’s practical, it’s not always feasible at the scales or in the terrain where control is needed. That’s why different methods, ground hunting, aerial control, landowner partnerships, and community involvement all play a role.
The positive side is that we’re starting to work towards more joined up efforts to manage introduced animals across agencies, hunters, iwi, councils, and landowners, plus trailing new tools and approaches. With everyone working together, we hope we can make progress in reducing numbers and protecting the places that need it most.
Give the public easier access to public land. This is a major problem that needs addressed.
There is no problem with hunter access to public land. Permits are easily obtained from DOC – do it online. From the easiest front country (think Pureora, Kaimanawa or hundreds of other places where you can drive in), to the remote back country where you might have to walk a day or two, or suffer a 15 minute flight in a helicopter.
I’m really interested in why you think access is not easy.
So important to emphasise !