Northlanders urged to report feral deer after Bay of Islands sightings

Contractors Dave Halliday, left, and Jordan Munn with the tools of their trade: thermal imaging equipment used to track feral deer in bush below from the air. Photo / NRC

Northlanders are being urged to let authorities know if they have seen feral deer after several were spotted during a recent Bay of Islands aerial operation.

Biosecurity officials from the Northland Regional Council (NRC) conducted an aerial sweep of about 2500 hectares of bush and farmland targeting sika deer on privately-owned properties in and around Elliot Bay in the Far North.

NRC biosecurity manager Don McKenzie said there were no known feral deer in Northland 30 years ago but they're now thought to be living in the wild in more than half a dozen locations.

Feral deer are officially classed as an "eradication species" in the north and while their combined numbers aren't huge, "they're definitely not wanted here", McKenzie said. It's illegal to release or move wild deer in or around the region.

From left, contractors Jordan Munn (Upper Hutt), Dave Halliday (Masterton), pilot Jono McDonald (Auckland) and Northland Regional Council biosecurity officer Warren Morunga. Photo / NRC

Red and fallow deer are farmed legally in the region but have escaped from farms and/or been illegally released, while sika deer are here as a result of illicit releases alone.

"Any feral deer are an issue for us because they're selective browsers, targeting particular forest species over others which can substantially alter a forest's make-up, along with associated negative impacts on the fauna that rely on those plants," McKenzie explained.

As well as destroying the understorey of native forest by browsing, grazing, bark-stripping and trampling, feral deer can also damage crops and exotic forests, and have been implicated in the transmission of bovine tuberculosis.

McKenzie says the sika deer were targeted with local landowners' permission after sightings throughout the year by members of the local community.

Four deer had been spotted and one shot during the recent operation.

Meanwhile, in two other incidents, the regional council had received reports of feral red and fallow deer wandering in the Kaiwaka and Topuni area – close to the southern edge of the NRC's boundary – just before central government had imposed alert level 4.

McKenzie said subsequent investigations revealed a landowner with more than a dozen animals illegally inside a large fenced area.

Several animals had been tracked and shot by NRC's deer response team in nearby regenerating bush. There was evidence a number of animals may still be in the area and the hunt for them is ongoing.

The Department of Conservation has legal responsibility for deer farms and is considering what action might be taken against the landowner involved in the Kaipara incident and what would become of the animals themselves.

The landowner had been co-operative with officials but claimed he had been unaware it was illegal for him to keep the animals, which he had reportedly held for several years.

The regional council is urging anyone who sees wild deer to immediately call a 24/7 Deer Hotline 0800 FIND DEER (0800 346 333).