Two Hawke's Bay men are facing charges of unlawful hunting and are likely to be among the first to face tough new penalties which were introduced last November.

Search teams have this morning located a hunter who had been reported missing in Te Urewera National Park.

The year's busiest hunting season has been marred by a "disappointing'' run of four serious incidents in the first week.

A 22-year-old Hamilton man with a gunshot wound in his chest lay on the ground of a Bay of Plenty forest for four hours while his father gave him first aid and his brother ran for help.

A Japanese whaling ship is reported to have tailed an anti-whaling ship into waters off Otago against the wishes of the NZ Govt, which labelled the move 'disrespectful'.

The Government should strongly censure Japan after one of its whaling vessels entered New Zealand's waters, the Green Party says.

Washington and Tokyo have been drawn into an unexpected diplomatic spat over the annual slaughter of dolphins in Taiji.

A kiwi which was savaged by a dog near Coromandel has been euthanised at Auckland Zoo.

Two hunters and a farmer investigating the sound of a rifle shot found a poacher hiding, cuddled up to a dead deer near Bruce Bay early yesterday.

Gun in hand, Kiwi millionaire Mark Gunton stands proudly over the corpse of a fallen African elephant.

A new Game Animal Council is to be set up to take a leading role in the management of game animals - deer, tahr, chamois and wild pigs.

A hunter has described how he and a mate spent an icy night in the bush huddled with their dogs for warmth after losing their way back to their ute.

A late-night walk in the countryside by two Wairarapa men and their dogs turned into the "hunt of a lifetime" last weekend after they stumbled across and captured a mammoth wild boar in the bush.

There's been plenty of kills and thrills for the young ones at the third annual Wild Game Hunt and Fishing Competition in the rural Waikato area of Tauhei.

The heli-hunting season on Department of Conservation land ends in late July and it is quite likely to be the last.

A Matakanui farmer hunting on his property at dusk lined up a shot, was alarmed by hearing two gun shots nearby then spotted a suspected poacher through his sights when a man ran across his potential field of fire in what police are calling a "near-miss".

It is the start of the duck shooting weekend and police are out and about in Otago and Southland.

A hunter shot and killed by his best mate last year had previously told his partner he knew how easy it was to mistake a person for a deer.