FOREST AND STREAM. 
257 
ANTLERS OF NEW ZEALAND RED DEER. 
Feb. 16, 1907.] 
Game Animals of New 
Zealand. 
When New Zealand was dis- 
I covered by Europeans there were 
no wild animals on the islands, ex¬ 
cept one species of rat, and that 
had been imported accidentally by 
the Maoris as a stowaway in one 
of their canoes. Now, New Zea¬ 
land is a happy hunting ground for 
j Old World sportsmen, abounding 
I with the red and fallow deer, wild 
boars and small game. All the 
game animals and most of the 
game birds, other than waterfowl, 
have been introduced by the white 
man. The Government exercises 
rigid supervision over importations 
of animals, the country having had 
distressful experience with rabbits 
and weasels, and no wild thing can 
get into New Zealand unless it can 
prove good character and give as¬ 
surance that it will not become a 
pest. There are no snakes or 
poisonous creatures of any kind on 
the islands, and the laws excluding 
them are so rigid that even a circus 
j cannot land a box full of pythons 
t as part of the show'. The bush or 
forest of New Zealand is so dense 
and the undergrowth so luxuriant 
that it would be impossible to ex¬ 
terminate snakes if they ever should 
I get loose. 
Last year a shipment of deer 
and other animals was made from 
:■ the United States to New Zealand, 
i It comprised eighteen wapiti, or elk, 
ten of which were presented to the government 
by President Roosevelt; nineteen Virginia deer, 
five blacktail deer and six raccoons. The New 
Zealanders were suspicious of the raccoons, and 
the most stringent injunctions were laid upon 
the keepers of the animals to prevent their 
escape. The wapiti were liberated in the fiord 
country of the South Island, a national park of 
2,00,000 acres; the Virginia deer were divided 
between the Lake Wakatipu country and the 
wooded hills of Stewart Island, and the black- 
tail were turned out in the mountains of the 
North Island. The raccoons were sent to a 
small zoo maintained by the government at 
Rotorua. 
I was in Rotorua soon after the distribution 
of the animals, and was a bit puzzled to ac¬ 
count for the insatiable yearning of govern¬ 
ment officials for information concerning the 
habits of raccoons. Knowing that I was an 
American, they pumped me assiduously for 
| 'coon lore, and their intense seriousness indi¬ 
cated that their inquiries were prompted by no 
common curiosity. Counter questions elicited 
the fact that in spite of all injunctions and pre¬ 
cautions, two raccoons had escaped and were at 
large in the bush, and the unfortunate keepers 
were getting a terrible wigging from the gov¬ 
ernment for their carelessness. When the news 
of the escape became public, there was as much 
excitement in New Zealand as there was in New 
I York when one of the papers worked the hoax 
of the breaking out of all the animals in the 
Central Park ma'nagerie. Parliament was in 
session, and debate on the land question was 
suspended while the members orated on ’coons. 
Nobody knew what a wild ’coon might do in 
the line of depredation, and the luckless keeper 
of the Rotorua zoo was censured as severely as 
' though he had lifted the lid of Pandora’s box. 
The government demanded information as to 
the possibility of multiplication of the fugitive 
raccoon family, but the zoo keepers were un¬ 
able to supply it. They were not sufficiently 
! well acquainted with the ’coon family to say 
whether the escape was an elopement or a plain 
: jail-break. Parliament determined to take no 
I chances on more ’coons, and offered a large 
reward for the runaways, dead or alive, and 
| straightway all the otherwise unoccupied men, 
! boys and dogs of Rotorua went ’coon hunting. 
They beat the bush, scoured the plains and ran¬ 
sacked the hills, but no trace could they find of 
the two little animals, whose escape had dis¬ 
turbed the peace of mind of the whole colony. 
Rotorua is the region of geysers, boiling mud 
springs and infernal pot-holes of various sorts, 
and the New Zealanders finally sought solace 
in the theory that the stranger ’coons, not 
knowing their way about had fallen into a hot 
spring and come to a timely end. 
The apprehensions of the New Zealanders 
were not unreasonable in the light of previous 
experience, for almost every animal imported 
into the islands has thriven marvelously, and 
some of the most innocuous have developed 
pestiferous habits. 
Captain Cook gave to the Maoris some pigs 
in the eighteenth century, and the descendants of 
those porkers are the razor-back wild hogs that 
roam the North Island bush in countless thou¬ 
sands and afford exciting sport to hunters. The 
New Zealander does not shoot wild boars. He 
goes after them with dogs, and when the dogs 
bring the quarry to bay, the hunter dismounts 
and mixes in the scrimmage with a long knife, 
watching his chance to> drive it in behind the 
tusker’s shoulder. It is no tame sport, for the 
descendant of Captain Cook’s drove of swine 
is often a formidable boar, with curved tusks 
more than half a foot long and the ferocity of a 
peccary. The wild pig is the only game on the 
islands that can be accounted dangerous, al¬ 
though there are wild cattle capable of putting 
up quite an interesting fight with a man on 
foot. 
* 
In 1863, three red deer from the herds in 
Windsor Park, the gift of the Prince Consort, 
were liberated in the Wairarapa forests, a short 
distance from Wellington, and took up their 
abode on the Maungaraki ranges. Conditions 
were perfect for the deer—mild climate, abund¬ 
ance of food and running water, and dense 
forest for shelter—and under protection the 
three increased to a herd, and the herd, in 
course of time, to countless thousands. Now 
the Wairarapa forest is believed to be the best 
stocked red deer range in the world. It is 
estimated that there are 10,000 head on the Te 
Awaiti run alone. They are destructive to crops 
and fences and consume much of the feed on the 
sheep run. and the estate owners give eager 
welcome to sportsmen who ask permission to 
hunt over the ranges. 
There are great herds of red deer also in 
th immense forest country of the South Island, 
and they are working their way over the South- * 
ern Alps toward the west coast. The Otago 
country east of the Alps is mountainous, the 
ranges rising from three to seven thousand feet, 
and generally free from heavy cover and well 
grassed. The west coast is heavily timbered, 
affording a secure refuge where the deer may in¬ 
crease undisturbed for many years. 
In the north section of the South Island 
roam the Nelson herds in rough bush country 
extending 100 miles from Nelson. Magnificent 
heads of 17, 18 and even 22 points are often 
secured by stalkers in the red deer forests. 
In the Blue Mountains of Otago and in the 
Waikato region of Auckland province fallow 
deer are plentiful, and there is a herd of’about 
1,000 on Motutapu Island close to Auckland. 
Fallow deer are as keen and wary as the red 
deer, and in New Zealand the bucks develop 
finer heads than in Great Britain. 
Besides the red and fallow deer, and the 
American deer liberated last year, there are 
numerous game animals introduced by the ac¬ 
climatization societies. Several moose were 
placed in the forests of the west coast of the 
South Island four or five years ago. Caucasian 
mountain goats have been liberated on Mt. 
Cook, and sambur and Japanese deer have been 
acclimated on the North Island. 
While the natural hunting grounds of the 
earth are being denuded of animal life by game 
exterminators, New Zealand, originally desti¬ 
tute of four-footed game, • is becoming the 
world’s recreation ground, the sportsman’s para¬ 
dise, because of the intelligent, far-sighted co¬ 
operation of government and acclimatization 
societies and the respect of her people for laws 
made for the rational protection of game. One 
never hears of excessive killing in Maoriland. 
To prevent indiscriminate slaughter, small 
license fees are collected from sportsmen, and 
a limit is put upon the kill. It costs $5 to hunt 
the Wairarapa forests from March 1 to April 
30, and the limit is five stags. The license for 
hunting in North Otago forests from April 1 
to May 31 is $15, and the limit is four stags. In 
other districts the fees range from $5 to $15. 
No female deer may be killed anywhere. For 
a fee of $5 the sportsman can shoot feathered 
game anywhere during the open season, and for 
