Tahr cull set to resume

CONSERVATION Minister Eugenie Sage’s contentious cull of Himalayan mountain tahr is set to resume tomorrow, weather permitting.

Her call last month to cull 17,500 tahr is largely unchanged and the Department of Conservation is still planning to wipe out 10,000 animals over the next eight months.

The original decision outraged recreational and commercial hunters, but following talks with the Tahr Liaison Group, those groups will now assist with higher kill rates of nontrophy animals.

While Doc hunters will target female and juvenile tahr, trophy hunters will shoot female and juvenile tahr in addition to taking trophy animals.

The South Island tahr herd is estimated to have grown to 35,000, more than three times the limit set by the Himalayan Tahr Control Plan ratified in 1993. and has been wiping out native plants and causing erosion concerns.

Over the next month, to midNovember, Doc and hunters want to cull 6000 animals to stunt the tahr population over the summer.

Doc would then decide what further action was needed to reach 10,000 animals killed by August next year. Doc and the Tahr Liaison Group would ‘‘over time’’ work towards reducing the size of the herd to the permitted 10,000 animals.

Ms Sage said urgent action was required to protect the environment.

‘‘To be very clear though, there is absolutely no plan to eradicate tahr completely,’’ she said.