Duck shooters get bonus weekends
For Taranaki game bird hunters who can’t wait for the May hunting season to come around then some summer hunting is on offer.
Fish & Game has declared a special two-weekend hunting season for paradise shelduck to help farmers disperse flocks which can otherwise damage pastures and crops.
The first weekend is Saturday, February 25 and Sunday, February 26 and the second is March 4 and 5 in the Taranaki Game Management Area ‘‘C’’ only. This area includes the Taranaki province north of the Waitotara River and all of the Stratford District. Hunting hours on each of the four days will be from 6.30am until 8pm. The daily bag limit has been set at 10 paradise shelduck per hunter.
Fish & Game officer Allen Stancliff says the aim is to disperse the ducks, moving them back to their home territories after they collected together for their annual moult.
‘‘This reduces the potential for mobs to cause damage to recovering hay paddocks, chicory crops and areas of new grass, before the main game bird hunting season gets underway in May.’’
Hunters who want to take part in the special season must hold a 2016 game bird hunting licence and obtain a $5 permit from Fish & Game or a local gamebird licence agent. The permit’s free to land occupiers who want to hunt their own land, but they do need to nevertheless hold a permit.
Stancliff added that the special March season applied to paradise shelduck only, and all other game birds remained protected. Fish & Game rangers will be out checking on compliance over the four days. ’’This is a great opportunity for some enjoyable summer hunting that helps farmers – all we ask is that hunters stick to the rules.’’
‘‘Also please remember that hunters need permission to hunt on private land – don’t forget to ask the landowner.’’
PARADISE SHELDUCK
The paradise shelduck is a native species that was originally confined mostly to the lowland tussock grasslands of the eastern South Island and Wairarapa.
Since European settlement, the conversion of forest to pasture and the creation of stock watering ponds have provided large areas of new habitat for colonisation and paradise shelduck have increased in abundance and expanded their range. The species is now common in most parts of New Zealand and is the second most important gamebird after the Mallard. In the Taranaki Fish and Game region, paradise shelduck make up about 40% of the total waterfowl harvest.
Adult paradise shelduck are territorial and breeding pairs space themselves out over the available habitat and raise their young on small farm ponds,
‘‘This reduces the potential for mobs to cause damage to recovering hay paddocks, chicory crops and areas of new grass, before the main game bird hunting season gets under way in May’’ Allen Stancliff
swampy areas, creeks or streams. They remain on their territories for most of the year, but leave between late December and February each year to congregate on ponds or river bends to moult and replace their flight feathers. Afterwards they return to their home territories. Non-breeding and juvenile birds that have accompanied their parents to the moult site often form flocks and range widely over farmland.
Paradise shelduck seldom cause problems for landholders when they are on their territories, because they are thinly spread out over farmland. Farms adjacent to large moult gatherings can experience pasture damage and flocks are sometimes slow to disperse after the moult, targeting chicory crops and the new grass of recovering hay paddocks. Fortunately, paradise shelduck respond well to gas operated scare guns and Fish & Game NZ will disperse paradise for any farmer who considers they have too many on their properties. The 2017 twoweekend summer season will also allow hunters who have obtained a permit to participate in this dispersal process.