Disclaimer

Readers are reminded that articles printed in this publication are the personal opinion of the writer and may differ from the official views of the Sambar Deer Management Foundation Inc.

The Chairman's Thoughts

I would first like to take the opportunity to thank the executive, committee and the individuals who have given their time and efforts freely to the Foundation over the previous year.

The ballot went smoothly this year with the harvest being somewhat lower than previous years.

The same old problem of poaching still occurs with much debate over the impact to the herd. Whatever the figures, it still means that some individuals are taking away the prize that could be someone else’s memory for life. It also means that someone else is processing the meat for a black market profit.

The measures to reduce tree damage in Santoft had variable success. The option of the ballot winner inviting a hunting mate into his block (after getting a license) worked well. This was the first time we had tried this method and obvious concern as to the concentration of hunters and other forest users meant that level heads were required. The season went off without incidence. The results were mixed, in that there was a higher than normal take in the first two weekends which then dropped rapidly. The Sambar were still within the forest so we are unsure why the success rate did not continue at the higher level.

A post season cull, (in association with DOC, who are the only body that can legally take Sambar outside the season) was not successful and a trial helicopter cull was offered by the Foundation. It has yet to be taken up. This may go against the grain of some hunters, but the object of the Foundation is to ‘manage’ the herd and if we do not attempt to control tree damage, in what is a commercial crop, then we are not managing anything.

In mid winter, when feed was short, the Foundation spent considerable time and money on feed / mineral supplementation experiments. Foliage samples were analyzed looking for obvious deficiencies. Salt blocks of different types were placed in forests area next to well used tracks. This hypothesis was that some minerals are in short supply within normal browse, which forced the deer to strip bark. Copper is commonly deficient within sand country soils and initially copper blocks were distributed. Results were that deer chewed the first one to appear but then stopped. The cattle within the forests had no such inhibitions. The results were inconclusive but it is interesting to note that the bark-stripping problem is not limited to Sambar. Red deer in NZ and overseas, specifically in the UK, are behaving in similar ways. The new UK pine forests are protecting the Red deer from harsh winters and damage is occurring as a function of the increased populations.

Forest damage will be an ongoing problem, where the questions out number the answers. For example from a personal point of view, I would ask, ‘is the ongoing breeding programs, that are developing faster growing trees, indirectly also selecting trees that have higher palatability’. That is, in selecting faster growing trees does if follow that higher sugar contents amasses within the bark, thereby increasing palatability. If so then it stands to reason that animals will be attracted to the trees. It a question that only time and research will answer.

This year the Foundation has taken on the services on Mathew Lark in his capacity as a consultant with specialist knowledge in the areas of scientific research and funding. He also has proved himself invaluable to the Foundation and I would like to thank him for his efforts on our behalf.

The Foundation commissioned a marketing survey this year, to find out what was the perception of the Foundation and its efforts. It was also to find out what we could do better and to establish what direction was required for the future. The survey sought the options of landowners, identified interest groups, hunters and ballotees. The results of the survey were very encouraging. The responses were on the whole very favorable to the Foundations efforts. While there was descent and areas were a larger number of respondents would have been desirable. It is helping in setting the future direction of the foundation.

On behalf of the Foundation I want to than you for your support and encourage you to join us at our monthly meetings where your input would be welcome.

Neil Hammer
SDMF Chairman

FROM THE HIRED HELP

You've seen my credentials in the minutes; and probably scoffed at the amounts this Foundation is paying me as its first hired help. Now I want to tell you why an ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATOR by profession, and a "sustainable use" conservationist by conviction, is standing up for the secretive Sambar.

The picture should confirm, that I'm no pin-striped lap-top-lugging low-life from the city.

The sole prerequisite for the work was "that the person hired would try anything and risk everything on the Foundation's behalf to advance its relations with DOC, and the wider community". They wanted someone with a rough tongue to lash the crown with, a stern boot with which to kick it, but a firm hand with which to engage it, when civil negotiations were more appropriate.

I had all those plus a thorough knowledge of conservation law and policy, a good antler on how DOC views deer and SEVERAL years of work with community environment organisations and state-owned media. "And how" you're asking over last year's head-skin, "does all this help the SDMF?"

For a start I've made sure, that everyone who is anyone in the DOC, from the Director-General downwards knows about the Foundation and that it has no intention of giving up the arduous but stimulating task of managing the Manawatu Sambar hunt. I've carried that commitment into negotiations for a new contract with DOC, which has just been signed and have negotiated authority for the Foundation to exercise new powers it has wanted for years.

We obtained friendly co-operation, free of charge, from DOC's regional solicitor, Geoff Hulbert, who deserves thanks for his careful responses to my often turgid submissions.

But the contract wasn't even the half of it. "We want to become a law-enforcement presence", members said,--"and we want to focus on poachers not pilot whales or penguins in pump-houses". So, I went to work on the pandora's box which is the Wild Animal Control Act, and found that honorary warrants were achievable, but no-one had ever conferred them on private individuals.

We're now erecting a scheme which will prepare selected Foundation members to hold honorary warrants and I have made technical submissions and personally represented the Foundation on this matter to everyone from Wanganui Conservancy staff, to DOC's national advisor for law Enforcement. I am confident that the 2002 season will see some real teeth, inserted in the head of the Foundation's trophy logo.

"Wait on mate, -- we want to do some Sambar science". "There was this idea that our Sambar are the best Ceylonese stock left outside the Indian subcontinent, and we want a forensic test and genetic proof, so that butchers and biologists, can SEE our deer are true blue".

"Good-o" boys I say nervously, wondering if such laudable ideals can be achieved.

By November of last year we had it in writing from staff of Ag-Research Ltd. that those ideals probably can be achieved, when the Foundation has collected samples from that other mixed-up herd in the Bay of Plenty, to be profiled alongside the Manawatu animals. Since March this year I've been getting some BOP hunters interested in obtaining hair, tissue and blood from anything that looks like a Sambar (or Rusa) from Rotorua to Whakatane. The spirited telephonic exchanges, I've had, suggest we'll have lots of fresh DNA ready for Ag-Research to work on later this year. My thanks are due to Dr Mike Taite, and technician Jamie Ward, for their expert assistance in drafting this project which will, when completed, have far-reaching implications for both herds.

So why have I, a non-hunting, bird-loving creature, been so committed to this Foundation, and these deer? Firstly, I like seeing and eating deer and secondly I believe the Manawatu and Rangitikei communities should have the right to treasure the Sambar as a "palatable", sporting icon of community conservation.

The work of keeping Sambar in that ideal position, has few rewards other than the knowledge that all the written submissions, negotiations and advising are ensuring that some hairy brown animals stay where some hairy (multicolored) humans can hunt and enjoy them. That knowledge, is quite enough to keep this advocate working.

The men I'm paid to represent will always have rifles and venison stew on their minds, and the organisation they've formed will never demur from upholding your right to be of that mind as well. My part is only to help the Foundation see ahead, and to make its reach, at least as pervasive as its grasp.

The new initiatives will only assure an extended reach for the Foundation, if its members, and those placid mail-box openers called "financial subscribers" remember two things. One is that the Sambar need gunning heads, as well as shooting hands, to advocate their value to those living with them, and those who would rather live without them. The second is that the more the Foundation does the less DOC will intervene in Sambar management, because as one staff member suggested to me, "we've got more pressing priorities, and the Sambar HAVE no significant impact on our estates anyway". I hear similar sentiments all over the country and sadly they often refer to more fragile native animals, which really need DOC's help to survive.

So I implore you, hunter and reader alike; support this slow but certain revolution, get behind the devotion, and commit to this Foundation's goal of managing your community solution.

I commend the Foundation to you all, and suggest more of you get in behind and aid its progress, so more people can further legitimize the animal which is your target and its charge.

Mathew Lark

FROM A MONITORS DAIRY

Sometimes I am not sure that looking back on last years diary is such a good thing. You are reminded of the weekends when little is done at home and of the hundreds of kilometers traveled. You see the frustrating days when you find just 1 or 2 of what should be up to 8 hunters on an average trip. It is not so bad when you find their cars but not the hunter as this means that they are putting the time in actually hunting. The really annoying times are when we are unable to find any sign that the hunter has even been on their block. There are those hunters that feel that access to the forest to drive to their block means that they can drive ALL the roads in the forest, their block and everyone else's block as well. We call these idiots "Road Hunters", they think that Sambar are so easy that they will shoot them from the road and not have to get the shine on the city shoes scuffed up.

However despite bad days there are some good ones when everything goes right, the hunters are there and sometimes we even get to monitor a deer. When Warwick and I go monitoring we cover about 300 km each day, leaving at 8am and are often not back home until after 7pm. We usually cover 3 ballot areas but can turn up just about anywhere. We are out at least one day each weekend. We are also out the weekend before and after the season putting up and taking down warning signs from Santoft to Waitarere and putting on the locks that the Foundation supplies for hunters. In addition to these 8 weekends we spend considerable time "pheasant hunting." Well that is what we call it but in reality more time is spent doing sign survey for Sambar than is spent hunting. The pheasant population does not seem to be in any danger from us.

When talking with hunters I often get the comment that we are forever looking around. "What do you expect to see, a Sambar!" "Ha Ha" Well actually yes I do and this year it actually happened (see article later). While talking to a hunters companion in Waitarere Forest a stag walked out onto the road, walked down towards us and then back into the trees. Unfortunately we had moved under the trees to get out of the rain and so by the time I got to the car to grab the camera it had gone. A few minutes later there was the sound of an animal moving quietly in the trees just over the road from us. It is our guess that he came back up through the trees just far enough to see just what type of fools we were that stood around in the rain when there was good dry cover in the trees. Damn, those things are too smart for their own good. It was just unfortunate that the actual hunter was not there or else we would have been monitoring a very fresh deer. Don't worry, I am sure it will happen one day, so keep those eyes open when you are back at your car. It might be a rest point for you but a main highway for the deer. The chap we were talking to asked that I mention this as he did not think his mate would believe him. It did happen!

Ian Fitchett

SEVERAL DIFFERENT (so far unsuccessful) APPROACHES TO SAMBAR HUNTING

1. Research
They are Sambar, evolved to hide from tigers in the swamps of India. They are the biggest deer in New Zealand (moose were released in Fiordland but no one has seen one for 50 years). They have big ears (all the better to hear you with) sensitive noses (olfactory excellence) and small feet. The different sized tracks suggests at least four animals in the area and the depth in the mud of some of the tracks suggests at least one is massive. The deer trail runs along the edge of the meadow. Their path is carefully chosen to provide cover and a view of the open spaces. Remarkably, the path avoids terrain containing dry sticks or other underfoot crunchables and brush-against snapables. The path at times seem circuitous, but following it I see that they carefully choose ground of new soft growth, skirting dry branches and open spaces.

2. Sitting and Waiting
I am not a tiger. My feet seem to seek out crunchy sticks, squishy mud, noisy pampas grass; my movement raises a general alarm among all the creatures of the swamp forest. I envy the tiger's mobile stealth. My only advantage is the stainless steel surgical tool with which I can reach out across a distance and bore deep holes in carefully selected locations. Having heard the legendary capacity of Sambar to carry bullets around with them, in preparation I tuned my rifle's nozzle weight (BOSS-CR) to accurately shoot 180 grain Fail Safe projectiles (.308). The tuning process took a whole box, after which my shoulder carried a bruise that lasted several weeks.

I pick a spot with a good upwind view of a deer path and sit unmoving for hours and hours. No deer come. Do I smell? The wind does swirl occasionally. In preparation, I made a tea of flax and herbs, which I thought might be appealing to deer, and soaked my clothes to enhance my illusion of olfactory incognito-ness. It smelled good to me anyway - maybe they'd be attracted? I'd even left my beloved coffee thermos in the car this time, forgoing that exquisite pleasure of a strong hot cuppa in the bush. Coffee also has the disadvantage of filling the bladder and it's hard to sit still for long hours with a full bladder.

My mind wanders. Angels bless me from clouds above. Birds ignore me and I become another bit of furniture to them. I philosophically admire the American Indian hunters of old whose clothes and tools were far less sophisticated - they are the ultimate professional hunters. Then - a dull thud. Was it? Eyes set to react to any movement see nothing big and chestnut brown. Slowly, I rise to investigate and discover fresh tracks just beyond the field of view from my carefully chosen spot. How do they know?

3. The Tree
Clearly I'm not as invisible as I think I am in my optical and olfactory camouflage. Maybe they are like other deer species and don't look up? I find a tree in the swamp with a commanding view. I am not a monkey, but attain my perch eventually. The forest comes alive as my stillness makes me invisible. Mama duck sends her brood out to forage and dabble just beneath me. The baby ducks leave tiny trails of rummaged grass in the swamp. This tree thing was a great idea, but no deer come to me, and my body starts complaining after about three hours of precarious perching.

4. The Swamp Vector
After it rains, the swamp is full. I don the waders and move slowly and quietly in the water. The water is on my side, insulating the crunchy sounds of my stick-finding feet. I am primed, rifle up, scoping through every opening between branches. I work my way upwind, looking towards known deer trails. The water is not an ally when a sudden unseen depth change causes a stumble and splash. Cover blown again. Or was it just another illusion of cover?

5. The Stalk
Last weekend of the season, now I know their trails up and down. The wind is from the northeast today so I run along the ridge to obtain an upwind approach. I follow their trails over silent ground under cover with edge-of-meadow views. I am now much quieter than before, following these trails and paying attention to every possible ground-dwelling sound-producing object. Fresh sign, footprints of at least three different sizes. One of them has the runs. I follow them to the meadow's edge, where I hear them romping just beyond my view - the dull thud dance. Somehow I get the impression that they are laughing at me, they know exactly where I am and stay just out of view, out of reach of my surgical tool. Then, they add insult. I smell the distinct mineral-methane tang of intestinal gas; the Sambar deer has farted in my general direction. Would they do that to a tiger?

Mark Grimes