Deer, Pigs and other animals

Dip Flat Camp

As part of our forest ranger training, we attended the Hunter Training School at Dip Flat. This was an amazing place, situated on the banks of the Waiau River (the Northerly one). I well remember the flocks of Kaka flying from one side of the valley to the other in the morning, and returning at night. It is hard to believe that this bird is now rare and endangered.

Dip Flat was a tough place, on arriving you were given a heavy pack and were told to climb a seep hill dubbed 'the ringbuster' and be back in an hour! A hard enough feat if you weren't fit.
We were taught things like firearm care, safety and accuracy, camp cooking, cleanliness, first aid, bushcraft, safety, and the importance of fitness.

In those days, government policy was that deer, pigs, chamois, thar, goats, rabbits, hares, possums and some others, were noxious animals.
You see, New Zealand has no indigenous mammals, (except a bat) and our unique flora was not able to sustain browsing by introduced animals. Government policy of the day was to eradicate all noxious animals. Of course this was recognised as an impossible feat, but it was the target and something to aspire to.
The reason was that these animals contributed to or accelerated erosion. Simply on rock screes animals caused downward rock movement. But in the bush, the animals ate the seedlings and damaged saplings and pole stage trees. Relating this to human populations, the old and mature remained, but the babies, children and youth are wiped out. Therefore as the old die off, there is no youth to take their place as adults, so the bush/forest dies out.
So Government Hunters, called Deer Cullers (actually culling really means removing of the unwanted, but really they were exterminators) were employed to control the noxious animals. And they did a very good job albeit expensive and as governments do, to reallocate funds, the law changed and these animals became wild animals so commercial and recreational hunters were theorised to keep control - which of course they didn't!

Anyway back in the day we became crusaders for the bush and believed that we were doing a good job to preserve our indigenous flora and fauna. I stand by that even today! We used many tools, among them 1080 poison - the subject of much controversy. I have seen a lot of it used, with no harm that I know of to human populations. Water contamination is not an issue because 1080 is leached very easily so is diluted rapidly. Birds do not touch the carrot bait, and undoubtedly some eat the pollard bait, but these are birds in the main like blackbirds which are not indigenous anyway. I have never seen a bellbird of tui dead because of 1080. I have seen some geese though (introduced ones), and once at Hamner a dog killed by 1080 and that was distressing.
We were sometimes accused of participating in blood sports, but we saw it as our job and to use a word not often used today, it was our duty!

Now at Herbert Forest there was a resident population of wild pigs. Not Captain Cookers, these were domestic pigs that were released possibly because the owner could not afford to keep them.
The OiC of the forest Russell Ewing (a very skilled man in practical things) was an ex Government Hunter who was appointed to the position when he was no longer fit enough to climb the mountains. Russell loved the challenge of pig and deer hunting and with his old Mauser rifle was an exceptional shot.
Russell did not advertise the fact that there were a lot of pigs in the forest and with his friends, he would regularly go on a hunt. The forest was kept locked, as a fire security measure, but of course poachers used to gain access and take deer and pigs from time to time. These were local guys who had a healthy pass-time and would never damage the forest; quite the reverse.

When I arrived at Herbert, old Russell was crook, and nobody told me that he had a closed 'gate policy' - especially when it came to pigs and deer. At Naesby Forest I had a dog and a .22 rifle, so spent all my recreational time shooting rabbits, and there were lots of them! So when I walked in the forest with my dog and rifle, I found the reasonably quiet pigs to be easy pickings. I could creep up to them and dispatch them easily (not going into the gory details). The workers though I was a good guy, because I always gave them pork!

Pig hunters are gregarious creatures, and I often teamed up with Mick Hill, the 'dozer driver. And many an adventure we had!
I opened up the forest to recreational hunters, because the pigs really did need to be controlled.  

One day, following protocol, old Russell rang me to ask permission to go for a hunt. I suspect that must have hurt him in a way having to ask permission on his forest!
When Russell came back on duty, he still was not in good condition, but I would take him with me on my duties and he would bring along his old ex-army binoculars and rifle. Occasionally he shot something and I would carry it out for him and gut it so he could take it home.

One day he was too sick to go out and stayed in the office and Albert came to help me to measure some trees. We spotted a mob of pigs and I had my old .303 with me in the truck, so of course our other duties fell in importance ranking. I cannot remember if I actually shot anything, but Russell had spotted us with his binoculars.
'I saw James and his mate poaching up on that patch rooting in Compartment 5!' Russell informed us when we walked in the door.
'Bastards.' Albert replied and both of us avoided his gaze.

Not long before he died, Albert and I took him for a hunt. Albert sat beside him in the cab of the old A2 Bedford and I stood on the back with my rifle, trying to spot game. I saw a mob of pigs and signalled Russell to stop. Albert and took off after the pigs, while Russell watched events unfold. I shot a nice pig for Russell take home, but when we got there, the truck had disappeared.! Then I spotted the tyre marks, and there was the truck over the edge of the road, with Russell was lying back in the seat. We though the worst of course, but he had fallen asleep! He had put the truck out of gear and had his foot on the brake pedal. When he fell asleep, his foot eased off the brake and the truck rolled backwards - he didn't even wake up when it went over the bank! Luckily it was not too difficult to extract and Russell was pleased with his prize, the pig.
Russell was one of the good guys!