Would Dr Sage cull moa due to their browsing?

EUGENIE Sage’s response re 1080 (ODT, 30.8.18) is at odds with much research.

Landcare scientist Wendy Ruscoe found fastbreeding rats surged back to their prepoison levels in just 12 months.

That was just three years after 1080 rats mushroomed to four times original numbers.

Senior Landcare scientist Graham Nugent in 1994 told a Doc workshop its 70 million possum figure was highly exaggerated — even 70 million possums would eat only 7% of the daily forest growth.

Dr Sage seems ignorant New Zealand’s vegetation was heavily browsed by moa and canopyliving birds for millions of years. Quinn Berrentson, author of the awardwinning book Moa, said in moa days ‘‘forests (were) quite different — quite open as giant moa browsed to a height of 3.6m’’.

Moa subspecies browsed up to 2000 metres on subalpine herb fields — probably the same alpine herbs tahr now browse. Would Dr Sage consider culling moa if they were still around because of their browsing habits?

Recently 3000 tahr were shot and left to rot and not recovered, probably because wild animals cannot be taken for human consumption within 2km of a 1080 poisondrop zone.

Hence the reason for commercial operators not hunting and recovering them, something the world’s starving would more than appreciate.

Lewis Hore

Oamaru