Helicopter-based Hunting in Fiordland - History

History

European settlers imported red deer into New Zealand and released them into the forests starting in the 1860s, along with many other introduced animals. The environment proved perfect for a population explosion, the result being widespread damage both to vegetation and to farmers' grazing. The New Zealand government, in order to solve the problem, paid deer cullers a bounty per deer-tail in an attempt to control deer numbers, starting in the 1930s. Until the early 1950s, the sale of deer hides recovered by the government hunters supposedly financed the wildlife culling operations. This ceased when the market collapsed. Then Germany began to purchase exported New Zealand venison, and the deer market hunting industry commenced.

Within a few years the German market paid a good price for venison. This brought about an industry of commercial deer hunting in New Zealand.

Hunters used horses and jet boats to transport deer back to game depots for sale. The typical “kiwi bloke” “do-it-yourself” identity created and developed this self-made industry. (Compare "Southern man".) The next stage of development saw the introduction of helicopters, used for carrying deer back to awaiting trucks positioned at remote road ends, for couriering to the venison-processing factories.

Within one year the technique of shooting deer from helicopters with doors removed became perfected with thanks to Rex Forrester, a recognised New Zealand hunting and fishing specialist. One thousand “aerial shot” deer counted as a highly productive month per helicopter. The price of each deer averaged NZ$150.