New Zealand is known as the land of giant red stags, mighty bull tahr, and some of the best alpine hunting opportunities in the world – but many folks may not know that in NZ you can also hunt one of the unique animals on earth – wallabies!
Not only can you hunt wallabies, doing so is actually a vital component of NZ’s broader conservation strategy. Wallabies, a close relative to kangaroos, are not native to NZ; however, five different species are present throughout the Island after being introduced in the late 1800s for sport hunting and the leather trade. With no natural predators, their populations have since exploded, and hunting is a critical tool for keeping their numbers in check and mitigating conflicts like vehicle collisions and reducing their negative impact on native vegetation and wildlife habitat.
Management and control of wallabies in NZ is expensive, and keeping the population confined to certain areas is an ongoing challenge. The ecological need to hunt wallabies in NZ is just one of many connections that can be drawn between hunting and wildlife conservation. So, join Federal’s Trigger Effect TV on this week’s Conservation Connection as they discuss the importance of hunting when it comes to controlling wallaby numbers in the Land of the Long White Cloud!
Tune in next week, as Conservation Connection discusses the difference between “species” and “sub-species”!