Fears wool industry could be wiped out by wild dogs within 40 years

By John McCarthy

From: The Courier-Mail

June 28, 2013      

  

Wild dogs and other feral pests are threatening the future
of agriculture in Australia. Source: News Limited

 

THE State Government is looking for a solution to the $700 million a year problem of feral pests.

A first ever summit of rural leaders was held yesterday on the issue as the rangeland sheep industry warned it could be wiped out in Australia within 40 years if the wild dog issue was not addressed.
Agriculture Minister John McVeigh said the town of Tambo in western Queensland was an example of a once proud wool centre that was in decline as farmers left sheep farming because of dogs.
He said heavy rains in the past two years in some areas of Queensland had added to the problem by providing plenty of food for pests, and deer and pigs were encroaching on suburban areas.
Dr McVeigh added there had also been two mice plagues since 2009 and there was also the decades-old problem of cane toads.
The ideal conditions for many feral mammals have led to an explosion in the number of feral pigs, wild dogs, and feral deer.
Dr McVeigh said feral animals were a blight on the landscape - preying on native animals, competing for food, shelter and habitat, degrading habitats, ecosystems, soil and water quality and causing further problems through hybridisation such as wild dogs breeding with dingoes.
"They have a huge impact on our farms causing production losses of around $215 million every year," Dr McVeigh said.
"Effective control of feral animals requires an integrated and collaborative approach between landholders, local and state government, together with support and commitment from interest groups and the general public."
Dr McVeigh said the issue had been dealt with by band-aid solutions for almost 100 years and he would introduce legislation later this year to bring about a more effective biosecurity regime.
The ideas raised in yesterday's summit would be presented to a new committee established by the Government to co-ordinate an attack on feral pests.
Agforce's Michael Allpass said the problem had been intensified by a declining workforce in rural areas.
"Over the last few decades the fencing just hasn't been maintained,'' Mr Allpass said.
"If we don't start doing something about feral pests our rural assets will be significantly diminished.''

Read more: http://www.couriermail.com.au/national-news/queensland/fears-wool-industry-could-be-wiped-out-by-wild-dogs-within-40-years/story-fnii5v6w-1226670962634#ixzz2XVCZKKXH

Baits bring in big boars

By Nathan Phillips

A Kiwi bloke named Graham and I were the final two hunters for last season with Matt Graham being my guide for the week and Graham being guided by Aussie larrikin, character and all around good guy Steve "I Like Guns" Lee. I couldn't have asked for better company for a week in the bush.


THE camp is on a working cattle property a couple of hours out of Katherine in Australia's Northern Territory and the accommodation is comfortable...tents with a large communal meals and kitchen area. Hot showers and flush toilet round out the amenities. My tent is on the right and Graham was in the one to the left in the photo below.

 

We arrived at camp mid afternoon and after a cuppa and a chat with Matt, we took a couple of rifles out to check zero. I brought two rifles with me; my old faithful Winchester M70 Classic Stainless .270Win with 150gn Norma ammo and my Sako Fibreclass 7mm Rem Mag. All good and back to camp for dinner and a catch up with Steve, who had been out dropping off a few baits he had shot.

Day 1 We were up before first light and off to stalk in on a bait in the pre-dawn gloom. As we got into range of the bait a very large boar had already winded us and was moving off heading toward the nearby creek offering no chance of a shot. We then decided to check out a couple of brumbies shot the week before in a different paddock. We stalked in from about 600m away and found a good boar was just moving off from the bait. Matt urged me to shoot him, but the extended range, nerves and not being able to get a clear shot between the trees and termite mounds caused me to hesitate. Matt suggested we get closer and I readily agreed. It turned out to be a good idea. When we got closer we saw that the boar was moving toward a mob of pigs further into the re-growth. We waited until he had joined them and then we moved in to about 80m away and studied them through the binos, finding not one but two good boars among the mob. I shot the two good boars and another two sows while the others just stood around watching.

 

We definitely could have cleaned everything up had we wanted to and I really don't think these pigs had ever been shot at before. We stood there for probably 10 minutes laughing at a young red boar take advantage of the fact I had just eliminated his competition for the young sow in heat that was with them. As soon as he was finished though, he wasted no time in hitting the afterburners,

I also got my first look at a buffalo bull when I heard sticks breaking above us and this fella came in to within about 50m while we were taking photos of my pigs.

The middle of the day was spent looking at baits to see what had been freshly fed on to establish a plan for the afternoon. We decided to take a couple of camp chairs and wait on a bait until after dark. It was well after dark before we heard a splash in the water beyond the bait. Half an hour later still nothing had appeared at the bait when I heard crunching footsteps in the dry grass behind us. I whispered to Matt, asking if he could hear that, and then a huge boar walked up beside us, casual as anything and stopped to look at us from a range of about 4 to 5m. After a minute or two he decided we weren't worth worrying about and continued on to the bait. Matt gave me the thumbs up so I stood and got ready to shoot. Matt flicked on his torch and I fired from a distance of about 12m or so. He was in long grass with only the top third of his body visible and I made the mistake of hitting him too high. He was, however, hit hard and stumbled a few metres to our left, then turned and came sort of towards us. I hit him a second time and he was down for good. He was a monster of a boar, well over 100kg but unfortunately bugger all in the tusk department. Unfortunately I didn't get a good photo of him due to the darkness.

Day 2 Up again before day light and off to check a couple of baits. The stalk in was ruined by a feral horse who kept running up ahead of us and spooking everything in sight. After finding nothing on the baits we decided we would go shoot the horse. Unfortunately by then he had run up into the trees behind a mob of buffalo and when the buff spooked, they took the horse with them. We spent the day exploring some new country, finding a very promising young buffalo bull in the process.

We also went for a walk along a creek high up on one of the jump-ups but didn't find anything other than an interesting little cave.

Back to the car and continuing on our journey, we came across a couple of really good scrub bulls. While looking at one of them a mob of six donkeys came into our sights. I anchored all six to the spot with single shots, but two of them needed a finisher. We dragged them together to create a new bait site with plans of visiting them on the last afternoon of my hunt. I didn't take too many pics of the donkeys, but here is one anyway...

And here is a nice young scrubber that caught my eye. He'll be a ripper in a few years.

We continued on and a few kilometres up the road we ran into another big mob of scrub cattle with a couple of good bulls among them. We also had a good laugh at one little rotund bull with stumpy legs bringing up the rear of the herd. Like the little fat kid who gets picked on in school by his bigger class mates... After they had moved off we continued another 100m or so and hit a fenceline, turned around to head back and just opposite where we stopped to look at the bulls was a mob of four donkeys. I rolled two of them and Matt said to leave the others We dragged the two donkeys together and made another bait site to visit on the last afternoon.

That afternoon Matt dropped me out to a tree stand overlooking a bait site to see what turned up for a feed. Unfortunately nothing showed and the day finished without another pig.

Day 3 Up before dawn for a quick breakast then out to stalk into another bait site or two. No pigs on either of them, but the pigs had been had been there through the night. We then checked out a swamp that Matt hadn't been to before. Leaving the vehicle and heading off on foot, we had only been there for about five minutes when Matt spotted a wild dog trotting along. He whistled to get the dog to stop while I leaned against a tree and shot her from about 80m.

While looking at the dog, a young buffalo bull decided he didn't like the fact that we were obviously in his territory and started moving towards us. He would come in a few steps, then run around to our right, then come in again, then run around to our right. Matt had said a couple of times "Geez this fella's a bit cheeky". It wasn't until he started undoing the velcro on the holster of his .44 Magnum hand cannon that I twigged to the fact that "Geez this fella's a bit cheeky" was actually code for "one tonne of buffalo is about to smear us into the dirt". Swinging the rifle off my shoulder and  disengaging the safety I caught myself wondering if a 150gn bullet from a .270Win up the nostril would do the job on a uff. Fortunately I didn't have to find out. Matt grabbed the dog and we beat a hasty retreat into the patch of thick scrub next to us & made a big arc back to the car. Tense stuff indeed. Pictured below is the trouble maker...

I went to a different tree stand that afternoon and once again nothing was happening with the pigs. They were proving very elusive. A big male dog came into the bait at about 8.50pm and had been there for about 10 minutes when I heard the vehicle coming to get me in the distance, so I flicked on the light and another wild dog was on the deck.

 

Having not seen hide nor hair of a pig for two days, Matt decided we'd go nocturnal and stalk in on a couple of baits after midnight. We got nowhere on the first bait with the ground being too dry and  the pair of us sounding like a herd of rampaging elephants trying to stalk in. The second site was a buffalo cow shot the week before. We could hear pigs fighting over the buff carcass, but the wind was all wrong to stalk in on and we eventually spooked them off. Back to camp empty handed and in bed just after 2am.

Day 4 Once again the pigs had beaten us in the morning. We stalked in on a couple of bait sites to find nothing in attendance, then walked for miles along a couple of creeks to no avail. On the way back to the vehicle we ran into three feral horses. As we were stalking up to them, they inexplicably ran off across the other side of one of the creeks. We stalked down to the waters edge and getting a rest off a convenient tree, dropped one with one shot from around 160m. Matt explained that the pigs like horse meat above all else so he would've liked to have dragged the horse back to the nearby bait site, but we couldn't find a way to get the vehicle across the creek, so it stayed where it was.

After our midnight raid the night before, it was time to hit the sack for a snooze. That afternoon I sat at another tree stand from about 5pm until around 9.30pm. Just before dark a big male dog came in to the edge of the bait and stood about 10m to my right sniffing the breeze before heading to the nearest carcass ready for a chew. His female companion, however, kept off the bait a distance of around 30m and circled around the bait site, stopping at the track Matt and I had walked in on for a sniff. The she was on to the tree behind me where Matt had stashed a camp chair cause the tree stand was a bit narrow for me. Both dogs moved off without feeding and returned three times in total, each time visiting the chair on the ground and leaving again without feeding.
About 9.20pm three pigs came in. I couldn't tell what they were in the dark, but could see two very large black shapes and could hear the third off to my right behind a low tree. Matt had told me that quite often the boars will hang back a little, then join in after they're satisfied everything is okay so I had convinced myself that the third pig I couldn't see was a boar. After 10 minutes or so I thought I saw the third pig in the clear so I flicked the light on in that direction. Turned out to be just the shadow of a termite mound, so swung the light back toward the bait. A large sow dropped to the shot and then I could hear the unseen pig off to my right take off through the grass back over my right shoulder. I couldn't swing the rifle around that far to the right due to the way I was seated in the tree stand and also the tree at my back, so flipped the rifle over & shot at the fleeing pig left handed. It was something I've never done before so had no idea how it was going to go. Dropped the pig on the first shot but it was squealing up a storm so hit it again. By that time the other pig was long gone, so got two of the three. They turned out to be two big old sows.

 

Day 5  Nothing at the baits we visited in the morning. I had been using the .270Win all week so asked Matt if I could take the Sako 7mm Rem Mag out and find a donkey to bowl over. He said sure and we ended up finding a mob of four horses. Six shots later all four horses were down. The first shot I took was a complete miss, not sure what happened, probably just hurried and jerked the trigger. Anyway, then three horses were anchored on the spot with only one needing a finisher, then the last shot was at the stallion, who ran off as if I had missed him. I reloaded and was following him through the scope when he keeled over, dead as a door nail. I didn't take any photos of them.

So the big plan had been put in place for the last afternoon of the hunt. We were off to visit the two  lots of donkeys I had shot on day two. When we got to the mob of six donkeys I had shot there were pigs already on the bait. As we tried to stalk up to them, three different lots of cattle spooked, running in every direction and spooking the pigs as they went. We left the bait undisturbed and headed to the second lot of two donkeys I had shot. We parked about 500m away and stalked in slowly.
As we neared the bait Matt spotted three large pigs about 300m away down on the creek flat. We continued on to the bait site and got comfortable on our camp chairs. While watching the three through the binos, one of them decided to take off for no apparent reason. One of the pigs still there was a very good boar so we thought we should go and get him before he decided to take off too. We hadn't gone 30m when he decided to head towards us to the bait. I leant against a tree and when he put his head down I shot above his head into his spine and  he dropped. He was on a game trail so we decided to leave him there until later, rather than scent up the track the game were using.
Back to our seats we went and out with the binos again. After a while I spotted a huge boar coming in from the scrub along the creek. I pointed him out to Matt and we watched him walk all the way up to his fallen mate. The big boar became jittery. We were discussing going for a stalk and getting him, when Matt noticed another big boar coming down the track we had driven in on. When the two boars met up near their fallen mate, they turned and headed towards the bait. We had already started stalking toward them and had to freeze where we were, about 8m from the bait. The boars were about 60-70m apart when the first one got to the bait. I had previously asked Matt which one I should shoot as I wasn't convinced I could get them both. He said I needed to shoot them both. No pressure of course...
I was trying to leave it as long as I could to allow the other boar to get as close as possible before I attempted the double. That decision was taken out of my hands when the first boar stood between the two donkeys looking at us from a distance of around 7m. With it being almost fully dark, I decided it was time. I raised the rifle and dropped the first boar with a head shot. I then swung onto the second boar and hit him hard with the second shot.  saw him hit the deck. He was up again in a flash and I hit him again. I turned my attention back to the first boar to make sure he was down and out as we were very close quarters, when Matt said the other one was up again. I took a few steps forward to the nearest tree, took a rest and put the boar down for keeps. He was by far the biggest of the three. The first two were well over 100kg and the third one had at least 20kg or more on them. Even though the first boar I shot on the first morning had the biggest tusks, these three were definitely the highlight of my week with Hunt Australia.
(Sorry for the quality photo but my camera packed it in on Day 3 so Matt and I only had our phones. You can see the big boy closest to me in the photo.)

On the way back to camp we stopped by my mob of six donkeys again, stalked in from 500m away and to within 60m or so. Matt flicked the torch on and we both thought nothing was there. Then there was a grunt and a small mob of pigs stood up from their slumber around the bait. I dropped two big sows from the mob and we called it a night.

I want to thank both Matt and Steve for their efforts. While Matt did the guiding for me, not to mention cooking, cleaning and tusk extraction for the camp, Steve and his Kiwi hunter Graham kept the baits stocked with fresh donkeys and horses. Unfortunately Steve "I Like Guns" Lee didn't have his guitar with him, but he kept us entertained with stories, jokes and card tricks. He made me promise not to Google them to see how they were done, because I would "lose respect for him as a magician". He's a funny man, and the whole trip was a blast.


Story first published on Australian Hunting Net
Reprinted with permission.
http://www.australianhunting.net/index.php?action=forum

If you want to know more about Hunt Australia follow this link
http://huntaust.com.au/home.html

Dingo: Wild dogs at war

Greens blast Game Council for backing TV show

June 23, 2013        

Tim Barlass



Public funding: TV show Beyond The Divide's website.

 

Interested in watching a program on how to shoot a moose and other exotic animals? Maybe you would be if you realised that, as a NSW taxpayer, you helped finance it.
Beyond The Divide, on free-to-air digital channels, carries sponsor advertisements for Beretta weapons, ammunition manufacturer Hornady (Accurate. Deadly. Dependable) and Game Council NSW.
The series promises to reveal the ''true adventure behind the hunt'', with the first series focusing on hunting wapiti deer in New Zealand.
Last week, the Game Council was allocated $4.35 million in the NSW budget, an increase of 63 per cent on the current financial year.

Greens NSW MP David Shoebridge condemned the council's sponsorship of the program, and said the government was ''increasingly addicted'' to doing deals with the gun lobby. Game Council NSW receives about two-thirds of its revenue from the government.
''In a tight NSW budget with limited funds for hospitals, schools and public transport, the NSW government managed to spend millions on an organisation that promotes guns and hunting,'' he said.
Game Council NSW's promotion of the show was ''further proof that the organisation is more about pushing a guns and hunting culture than it is about feral animal control''.
A spokeswoman for the Game Council said the ad was a one-off agreement to the value of $18,000. ''The episode featuring Game Council clearly falls within the objects of the Game and Feral Animal Control Act 2002, by showing a demonstration of the Game Council R-licence system and an interview with the chairman on the formation of the Game Council and its role in the promotion of safe, responsible and legal hunting on public land in NSW,'' she said. ''In addition, the footage of the chairman removing goats from public land in NSW clearly demonstrates the pest-control benefits of the system.''
A spokeswoman for Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson said the $1.69 million increase in the Game Council's funding was designed to expand the council's capacity to administer hunting in national parks.
''This increase is for the planned Supplementary Pest Control program in national parks,'' the spokeswoman said. The program is on hold pending the government's consideration of the independent review by Steve Dunn into the council's governance.

 http://www.smh.com.au/comment/greens-blast-game-council-for-backing-tv-show-20130622-2opa6.html#ixzz2X0hkdLLi

Illegal hunters allegedly caught on camera in World Heritage Area

         

A park user allegedly that came across the hunters while bushwalking
near Tigersnake Canyon.(National Parks Association of NSW)      

         

Anti game-hunting campaigners say they have photographic evidence of two illegal hunters in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area in New South Wales.

A group of bushwalkers claim they came across a pair of hunters with rifles strapped to their backs near Tigersnake Canyon last Saturday.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service says the incident was reported to them, but authorities were unable to locate the men.
Plans to introduce recreational hunting in national parks are on hold, pending the outcome of a report into the Game Council.
The program would allow amateur hunters to eradicate pests in some NSW national parks.
But the National Parks Association's Justin McKee says that plan is dangerous.
"An incident like this in a high tourism area demonstrated the potential for conflict between the public and armed hunters," he said.
"Hunting in national parks is bad policy, its bad for tourism, public safety and the environment.
"It ruins the international reputation of our national parks brand that has taken 50 years to build up."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-23/hunters-caught-on-camera-in-nsw-heritage-area/4774094

Tom Varney: from wild man to wild dogs

What if your jacket had its own in built heater?

The Milwaukee M12 HJ jacket showing the
dust and dirt of a Winter's day in the shed.

IT is strange to read that your new jacket is regarded as a power tool.
But that's the way it is with the Milwaukee M12 HJ.
The HJ stands for 'heated jacket', that's right, heated jacket. It's a battery-powered jacket with a heating element that runs on either low, medium or high.
And it works.
At first glance this might seem an extravagance in the Australian climate but I have been using mine in the pre-dawn cold of a NSW New England Winter and, for me, it's worth it.

The heating system operates on a rechargeable battery that sits in a holder which is plugged into the heating element that runs up and down your back. The front of the jacket features a press button that allows you to pre-heat the element and then operate it on low, medium or high.

The on-off switch sits on the left chest side of
the jacket and is easy to use..

It all starts with the 12v battery charger you plug into the mains power. Everyone knows how they work...red light means not charged, green means go. Once the battery charger shows green, usually in about an hour, you slide it into the holder and attach the holder to the jacket and slide the lot into its own pocket low-down on the jacket's left side.

The battery pack in its pocket.

Once the battery pack is in place, the focus turns to the press-button switch on the left breast of the jacket. The first press activates the pre-heat function and the button flashes red. Once the pre-heat phase is complete the button will glow white to indicate the medium setting. Pressing the button cycles through the heat settings from medium up to high (red continuous light) and to low (blue continuous light).

The level of heat determines the battery life. On low the battery will last about six hours . On high the battery is one in about two hours.

 

But does it work?

In short, yes. I use mine when I get up to get ready for a hunt. That usually involves getting out of bed at 4am, going out and letting the dogs out for a run in the frost or fog before getting them on the truck and saddled up ready for a 5am departure. There are other things I have to do as well but most of them involve being cold and trying to warm up. With the Milwaukee jacket I just put it on, press go and it goes. Within minutes I am warm and I feel I can concentrate on what I am doing.

I don't take the jacket hunting but I do take it camping.

Getting back to camp after dark and waiting for a fire and your dinner to heat up is now a piece of cake. Just put on the jacket, even on low and the pressure is off.

 

There are a few rules with a heated jacket. Hand wash it only (minus the battery pack and holder), don't iron it and don't wring it out.

It is said the be water resistant but I wouldn't wear mine in the rain, it just doesn't strike me as a smart thing to do.

 

The latest versions of the jacket now feature USB points to recharge your phone and pocket warmers but mine is the simpler style. I can, however, buy a camo 'skin' to use for stalking which will take the same little battery pack and give me another option.

Indeed, I could also buy a skin in blaze orange or red or yellow to go with my formal black.

 

The heated jacked is one of those things you might not buy for yourself because it can seem, as I said earlier, a bit extravagant.

But it is exactly the sort of thing someone else can buy you for your birthday or Christmas to fill a niche in the wardrobe and solve the gift givers' need to find something for the person who has everything.

 

The battery in its holder is surprisingly unobstrusive.

 

The battery slides into its housing which is then plug
into the cord which runs to the heating panel.

 

The battery will recharge from flat to fully charged in about an hour.

http://www.milwaukeetools.com.au/products/m12/show/m12hjcamo2-21

Mountain boars are a breed apart...

By Mick Frost

WINTER is upon us again on the northern New England tablelands of New South Wales.
The first frost makes its presence known as the grass crunches underfoot. The moon is full and high in the night sky, illuminating the landscape in a silvery wash of light. The two dogs tremble and quiver, whining in delight. Their collars tight and the red light on the GPS unit flickers reassuringly.
The time of night, the season and state of the moon add a degree of anxiousness to a hunt like this.
Lone dominant boars use this time to range far and wide in their territories in pursuit of sows in oestrous.
It's well after midnight and the surrounding mountains well up on the horizon in the moonlight as I approach the hunting area. By daylight the range is a scattered mess of house size granite boulders, scarred in deep hidden gullies. The gullies are filled with blady grass, bracken fern and tea tree and somewhere in that thick mass of vegetation and eucalyptus a lone boar makes his home. Far away and independent of lesser pigs he uses the mountain as a safe haven. By day he camps at a certain level that affords him greatest safety, constantly sniffing and testing the rising thermals for any danger from below. Coming down for a short period at night to feed he melts back into the range at the first glow of light on the eastern horizon.
With winter his visits to the low lying flats become more numerous and of longer duration.
This is the time I like to target these big secretive mountain boars.
With the shorter days and plummeting temperatures the frosts burn off the more succulent summer grasses and food becomes more scarce. Big boars materialise out of the thickest scrub and bush land and offer dedicated hunters a chance at nailing them in the open where they are at their most vulnerable.

 The particular pig that I am targeting has made a mockery of numerous dogs over the past year.  The cocky has had crosshairs on him on the rare occasion he's spotted him but he is always on the move and gone before a shot can be fired in anger. From vague reports he's a typical high country pig, all black, a thick, dense wiry coat to fight the frosts and occasional snow falls. Often his whereabouts can be gauged; dogs flying off the ute and high tailing it up the mountain into the gorge only to be smashed in the tea tree or to lose him all together in the thick undergrowth circling round and round, back tracking on the GPS eventually coming up empty handed.
In conversation with the property owner he points to his jersey weaner and says "he'd be as big as Dulcey there". My heart skips a beat. He shows up sporadically through winter, but disappears into the mountain range with the spring rains and warmer temperatures.

Big pigs in these parts are almost exclusively nocturnal. Hunting pressure is high and pigs educated. The sounds of a ute travel far in the crisp dense mountain air. The inorganic groan of a diesel engine, the squeak of a cage, or the rattle of a chain mean only one thing to a mature boar that has survived several winters. Pure unadulterated danger. At the first sign of intrusion he will melt back into the shadows of the mountain and be enveloped in the mass of gully systems.

Of course these pigs can and are caught off the ute but a different tactic can be employed with these secretive mountain boars that will allow the dogs to nail them in the open. Walking in on known big pigs is a deadly tactic that pays quick dividends on hard hunted boars. Walking is especially effective once a big pigs habits have been "patterned". This patterning will be done during the day, keeping a note of where boar sign is sighted, travel directions, measuring foot size, what he is feeding on, where he is feeding and in the last few years the employment of game cameras. Many of these mountain pigs are non crop dependent meaning their movements seem slightly more erratic. Generally as they are far from any crop and are usually feeding on grass seeds, blackberries, grubs, tubers, roots and carrion. These food sources mean growth rates are slower and by the time a boar reaches the 120kg mark he has most likely come to an agreement with several dogs.

Walking is not for everyone, you must be fit and dedicated. A boar will often be missed time and again from the ute in rough country due to the headstart they can have on the dogs. Of course there will be blokes out there with super dogs that hit up big boars off the ute and never miss them and won't need to walk...
Dogs must be fast on scent, direct with their finding, very highly driven in the pursuit of their quarry and even better at honing in on and stopping a big boar. Add to that sometimes long periods of time with the boar because of the time it an take you to get there.
Hunting on foot puts you in touch with the wild life and landscape around you. You start to pick up on more sign  and get to know better where this sign will be found. For example: Tusks marks on trees, what sort  and size of tree to look for that boars prefer to use;. Pig tracks on pads, their size and where they are heading; Turned over logs and cow pats. All things that can be missed from the comfort of a ute.
Hunting at night on foot with the aid of moonlight on big 'patterned' boars adds a whole new dimension to some of the pigs you will come in contact with in regards to size and strike rate on finds for the dogs. The moonlight allows you to walk long distances without the aid of torch light, potentially alerting big flighty pigs of your presence.

With the ute in low range and lights out, it slowly groans down the side of the hill to where I will finally abandon it, step into the crisp air and begin my walk along the base of the mountains. Hunting boars in the mountains is more about the outsmarting of the animal. It is far separated from the pig chasing of the western downs and plains. Numbers fewer, more hunters for a given amount of pigs and a far more challenging environment combine to make it the ultimate challenge for man and dog.

Using the light of the moon I walk slowly, testing the direction of the wind, confirming that it is correct for the direction in which I will hunt. Without shining lights around I broach the side of a small stream that hugs the base of the mountain to the east. To the west the country opens up into creek flats interspersed with blackberries and rising into small hills and open eucalyptus bushland. Mob pigs often use the latter to live and feed. Big lone boars will often hang on the fringes of mobs, closest to the side of retreat hugging the edge of the mountains, and for this boar his escape route will always be to the west across the stream. With this in mind another way to try to single them out from the mob is to try to circle around known mob feeding areas and cut between them and their escape routes and picking loan boars of the fringes. Easier said then done.

I know where he has been crossing the stream, his tell tale hoofs leave an impression on the ground giving me a picture of how big he is. I've marked the spot on the GPS and am making a beeline to it hoping to pick up some ground scent on his pad. Being an animal of habit I know if he's crossed it will be at this particular place. Getting to within about 700m of the spot the dogs intensity starts to rise and a more serious demeanor can be read on their face. Their noses point towards the sky testing the slight breeze, getting fragments of that tell tale rank smell that floats on the frigid air. They canter off into the breeze with their noses high in the air. No ground scent yet, but a rank waft that ebbs and flows. On the GPS I trace there movements . They cut in a zig zag fashion. No doubt losing the scent on the breeze, then gaining it again as they work to a different position all the while working toward the target. With that their pace quickens and becomes more of a straight trajectory on the GPS as they vector in on a target. You hope dearly you won't hear a squeal. Standing there. Listening. Knowing. Your hair stands on end. You stand dead still straining to listen, hearing the pump of your own blood in your ears. The feeling is akin to throwing a surface lure into a deep dark mass of logs on sundown in some bass or cod river, knowing what's going to happen, but the explosion still surprises and scares you every time. With that my Bull Arab lets out a huge deep bark, closely followed by a massive exhalation of air and the unmistakeable roar from an enraged boar, then silence. He has been caught in the open, red handed with nowhere to run and must fight for his very existence. Getting to about 20m from the battle I turn off my headlamp and walk slowly in to better gauge the situation in the moonlight. The last thing you want is to become the attention of a 100kg pig that's just a little bit pissed off. Scarily old pigs know who and what poses the greatest danger to them, and it's not the dogs. The occasional yelp, grunt and growl is heard. Big pigs can and do break from even the strongest of luggers so I use the cover of a big tree and time my run from behind it to race out behind the pig and grab a leg as he spins wildly all the while violently thrusting his head up in the air.

A few pats and "good boy" to the two panting dogs, I check them over and find the pig was not the only one to pay a price tonight. The pigs fighting pads reach his hips and are an inch and a half thick where they hang down over the top of his front legs, like an armadillo. Sitting there, I stare at this animal, steam floating from his still body, I wonder what it is that draws me on such a deep level to find and catch this dangerous adversary. The thrill of the chase, the adrenaline of a big boar, or importantly being in the bush and doing something for the environment and landholders. But it's then that I look at my two dogs, staring back at me puffing, and I realise for me at least, it's about them. Working with them, experiencing the highs and lows of pig chasing with them, watching their development, conditioning and training them, having them put their lives on the line for me, experiencing their mateship, knowing they will push themselves to physical failure to please me and sometimes even feeling their heart beat for the last time laying in your arms.
All this from a few weeks of age until the day they die, working with ,and training a good dog is what makes this activity not just a sport or a hobby, but a religion that I live and breath 24/7.

Pro buffalo shooting: the way it was...

The Great Australian Buffalo Hunt

 

A 54 minute documentary put together in the 1980s about the pro meat market in the seventies. Take particular note of the stats...a new rifle every two weeks, a grown buff skinned, dressed and quartered every seven minutes and more...

 

 

 

With thanks to Neale for finding the footage.

Using game cameras to pattern big boars

 

A short film I made last year to show how I use game cameras to pattern big boars on one of my hunting blocks. It was all shot with a little digital camera and is unlikely to win any awards for camera work or editing but I hope it encourages hunters who aren't using game cameras to give them a try.

You can't spend all day and all night in the bush observing things but the game cameras can...

 

 

 

Annual kangaroo cull draws fire

John Thistleton and Stephanie Anderson

Canberra Times

June 6, 2013

(1)

 

Kangaroos graze in Gooooyaroo Nature Reserve in Gungahlin. Photo: Casual CAS

                
Two professional shooters will begin to cull 1455 eastern grey kangaroos from ACT nature reserves on Friday  night, the lowest number for an annual cull since 2010.

The cull will be carried out on seven grassland and woodland sites to conserve grassy ecosystems, according to the government, but opponents say kangaroos are at risk of being wiped out and protesters are travelling from across the country to take part in night time rallies.
After drawing fire from other critics last year for wasting kangaroo meat, 20 per cent of the kill will be processed for baits for wild dogs and foxes.

Territory and Municipal Services Minister Shane Rattenbury said the government would never consider a commercial cull, even though the national commercial quota this year is more than 184,000 kangaroos. Federal statistics show the separate sustainable quota for 2013 is nearly 6 million kangaroos on mainland Australia.

Mr Rattenbury said the ACT cull was too small for commercial gain, and the smallest possible while protecting other flora and fauna in nature reserves.

''The second issue is if we did move to a commercial phase, you almost have to do the cull to feed the process. We certainly don't want to lock in that demand-driven approach.''
Critics have also accused the government of killing or leaving behind hundreds of joeys on previous culls.
Parks and Conservation director Daniel Iglesias said between between March and July the age range of joeys meant they were either independent, or so small they would be with the mother. In those cases, the joeys were killed with a sharp blow to the head.
The cull's timing aimed to avoid when most females had large pouch young or young-at-foot dependent on milk.
Mr Rattenbury said scientific surveys contradicted claims of eastern greys being close to extinction. Instead, they showed some of the highest density of kangaroos per square kilometre in Australia.
''If there was something like a crash in the population those numbers would start to show up. If there was a sense of any sort of endanger or extinction those numbers would show up.''
Mr Iglesias said in the wild, predators kept kangaroo numbers in check, and being herbivores, they could breed rapidly to recover numbers.
''In the ACT kangaroos can increase year on year between 30 and 60 per cent. They'll continue for as long as there's grass. ''The driver for them is food, the check is the predator. We have plenty of food. We don't have the check.''
The shooters had an exceptional strike rate of more than 99 per cent for hitting their target the first time. They worked for other land managers throughout the year, including National Parks and were rigorously tested on macropod identification.
Mr Iglesias said the ACT was the only jurisdiction investing in research for fertility control. CSIRO trials showed some progress on a product from the United States that had rendered deer infertile.
Mr Rattenbury, the sole Greens MLA, said for most of his adult life he had worked to protect the environment.
''I appreciate there are people who find this distasteful.
''I don't think anybody in the ACT government likes the fact this needs to be done,'' he said.
''But for me it is an environmental decision, it is an ecological-based decision.''
Protesters will gather to rally against the impending cull on Thursday, as part of a demonstration organised by Animal Liberation ACT.
The organisation’s Carolyn Drew said she was unsure of how many people would attend the rally, but said she was expecting up to 100 people for night time protests across the capital.
She said the protesters would be a “formidable force” with volunteers coming from Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales after undertaking training.
“That usually involves running around in the middle of the dark,” she said.
“It’s also training in communication.”
Ms Drew also dismissed safety concerns for protesters, saying they wouldn’t take unnecessary risks.
“It’s a necessary risk to go into the parks and find where the shooting is happening,” she said.
“It is risky… but it’s not that they won’t know we’re there.”
Ms Drew said the funding spent on culling operations should be redirected to fencing along roads.
“It would be a simple, constructive solution,” she said.
“I don’t think people in Canberra particularly hate or love kangaroos. I think most Canberrans’ concerns with kangaroos relate to their cars.”
The initial protest will be held outside the ACT Legislative Assembly at 12.30pm.

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/annual-kangaroo-cull-draws-fire-20130605-2nqyg.html#ixzz2VaZDJXJA

In a life of variables, pig catching is a constant

 

MOST of my hunting is done with dogs.
I breed them, train them and use them to find and grab wild pigs for pest control and for the freezer.
I am also well aware that some people find the whole concept challenging. And with good reason.
As I often say to those enquiring...it's not a game of tennis.
You can mitigate the risks, particularly for the dogs; have them fit, have quality protective equipment, be quick to support them. But dogs that want to find and stop pigs (and that is a crucial point, the dog has to want to do it...) are going to put themselves at risk.
Catching wild pigs with dogs is potentially dangerous and puts dogs and the hunter at the snorting, pointy end of agricultural and environmental pest management (and food gathering for that matter...). A bad pig can certainly hurt you or a dog but that's not all that's out there. There are sprains and strains, puncture wounds from sticks and knives, cuts from barbed wire, injuries from vehicle mishaps and the odd fall off a cliff... and that's just what's happened to me.
Pig catching is what I like to call 'big R reality'. It's not a concept or a theory. It's not open to interpretation. It's not my reality versus someone else's.
Catching big boars, particularly in steep mountain country, involves putting your hands on a very alive and very dangerous animal that can and will hurt you properly if you give it the opportunity. (Getting hit in the knee by a boar is like being hit by a sledge hammer with a spike welded to it...)
It's that reality I like.
For me, it's clean and clear; get it right or deal with the consequences.
There is no question that crawling into a blackberry bush at 2am to grab a nasty boar held by one of your dogs is 'big R reality'.

But why do it that way? Why not just shoot, or poison or trap pigs if it's all about pest control and shoot and trap if it's about food gathering?

Well, of course it's not all pest control and sourcing organic meat. It is mostly about the dogs.

The relationship with the dogs, the breeding and the training is what drives it all for me. The use of dogs has a perfectly practical application and forms one of the pillars of population management but the reason I hunt with them rather than shoot from a chopper is because it satisfies something inside me.
You can become very close to an animal that will put itself directly in harm's way rather than let you be hurt. In my case, there is no doubt I am in charge of my dogs. They behave as I wish. I am a benevolent dictator but a dictator all the same. But that relationship is more like a brother or sisterhood at the moment a big boar is on the ground as the result of our combined effort. There is a depth to the experience, the shared danger and that can be felt but remains elusive to adequately describe.

In pest control terms, around here anyway, landholders and managers use poison, traps, helicopter gun platforms and pig doggers in whatever combination they can afford or see fit.
Dogging pigs is not the best or the only way to manage the invasive pest issue, and you can say that about any of the methods mentioned. What can be the best method to one landholder or manager might be the worst to another. Dogging pigs is just one of the ways it can be done and any real attempt to manage pigs in an agricultural or ecological sense needs to consider all options and how they might fit together and then be Co-operative, Co-ordinated and Broadscale.
That's what the experts in population management tell us and I think they are right.

But while all that co-operation and co-ordination is being negotiated and funding is sought for the broadscale application of whatever method is chosen, I haunt my landholders' properties with my dogs. It keeps up the pressure on the pigs and keeps us in pork.

If the pigs reach a population level that makes me or the landholder uncomfortable, I will activate traps as well as dog the pigs that refuse to be trapped.

However, whatever happens, I keep coming through the front gate with the dogs ready to work. Of course, the pigs work out your tactics and change their behaviour so you have to be ready to adapt.
I keep coming through the gate but what time of day I do it, what phase of the moon, even what I am driving and how I drive when I enter the property will vary.

I want to hunt, the dogs want to hunt and the landholder wants us to hunt...

It makes you a part of the management of land and a part of the landscape.

It is a constant and will be until I can't physically do it any more.

Getting your goat...two NSW public land hunt videos

Going public helps Mark add some free range meat to the freezer.

 

 

 

(For the best view hit the 'full screen' button on the lower right hand corner of the video box.)

Climbing through the cold...

DIARY OF A TAHR HUNT

By Troy Crittle

IN early May this year I reached the ripe old age of 40.  My long suffering and very understanding wife had said to me a year or so before that I should do something to mark the occasion.  So I did... This is a photo diary of my 40th Birthday New Zealand trip to hunt a bull tahr with my good mate Pete.

 

DAY 1: WE'D been very lucky to draw a balloted tahr block in the Adams Range area.  Being newcomers to tahr hunting we decided to hunt with guide, John Royle, and we are glad we did. The only way into our block was by helicopter so we picked Alpine Adventures and awaited our pick-up was from the road end at the old Whataroa Bridge.

 

We were limited to one large backpack and one daypack each and a medium sized esky between the three of us.  It was quite a squeeze in the helicopter.  Pete looked a bit nervous when the pilot checked his I-phone mid flight...

   
After a 10 minute fight we arrived at our landing site. There were two alternate landing sites on the block this was in case the preferred site was in cloud. Luckily Jamie the pilot found a hole in the cloud and was able to put us down at the first campsite.  After setting up camp, which was only two small tents, we got into glassing tahr and saw a few bulls straight away. (You know its steep country when you have to lie on your back to see the top of the range...)

We glassed a few bulls and set off for our first tahr hunt.  We climbed in and out of a few gullies and when the fog cleared Pete and I where able to take a good bull each.  I was using my Ruger 30/06 with Hornady 150g handloads.  (Pete used my rifle to take his bull as well.)  Both bulls fell into a steep gut and it took quite a while to get across to them.  (Check out the glacial ice behind my bull. )
It was a very nasty spot to climb out of with a tahr cape weighing about 25kg.

 

We caped my bull and by the time we got across to Pete’s bull it was almost dark.  We had to leave him there and come back the next day to retrieve him. Even without the extra cape, getting out of that gully was an absolute mission. We arrived back at the tents at 8.30 pm completely exhausted. 

 

DAY 2: Our second day was spent retrieving Pete’s bull and working on my cape. The weather cleared nicely but in started raining just on dark and rained all night. 

DAY 3: On day three we woke to tahr whistling at us from above camp.  After a mad scramble for breakfast and to get gear together and we were off up the hill.

 
As we climbed, steady light rain turned to sleet and then snow but we kept glassing and climbing for about an hour.  We thought the bull we were after had given us the slip but then John spotted him grazing on a ridge line about 350m away.  We hunched over like tahr and stalked across the open tussock to a more manageable 230m from the bull.  It was snowing quite hard now. 

I lay down in the snow and took a rest across my daypack.  The bull had stopped grazing and was looking in our direction.  Unbelievably as I got down behind the rifle a flock of four or five keas found us and they wanted to show us some old bones that they had found.  We quietly got rid of the keas and I got in behind the rifle again. 

It was quite hard to see the bull as the scope was filling up with snow but I managed to get a good shot away.  The bull dropped like he’d been electrocuted and rolled 80-100m down the slope.  Thankfully he stopped just before a large drop. 

John was excited and thought I had just shot a really great bull.  It took us 40 minutes or so to climb up a snow shute to where the bull was and see if John was right.

What a bull.  He was 13 ¾ inches long and the best bull John had ever seen a client take in 27 years of professional guiding.  He has a beautiful cape as well which I think is as much of the trophy as the horns.   We took a few photos and got started on the caping as we could see another snow shower approaching and we were a little concerned about getting down safely.

  While we were caping the big fella this young bull came and checked us out. 

Coming down with the cape through some snow.

DAY 4: On the fourth day we concentrated on getting a second bull for Pete.  One of the advantages of hunting the balloted wilderness blocks is that the tahr are exposed to very light hunting pressure. This meant that quite often animals would feed down quite low on tussock grass of a night and by daylight (about 7.30 or 8 am depending on the weather) they could still be within shooting range from camp. 
So on the fourth morning we were able to glass a nice bull feeding on a face across from the camp.  Pete and John were about to close the distance by about 200m while I glassed from another spot to keep an eye on the bull and call Pete’s shots. Pete was shooting over 400m and he made two good shots on the bull. I saw the bull come down a steep creek and go in under a small cave. He didn’t come out. 
John suggested that we stay put and that he should climb over and get the cape as the bull died in a very nasty spot that was no place for first time tahr hunters. It took John over four hours to cover the 400m to the bull and to return to camp with the cape. He told us there were places where he was nervous, which is saying something.        
 The bull ended up right on the edge of a 20m drop off. 

DAY 5: The weather on the fifth day was clear and fine. We woke to a very big frost and everything was frozen solid including our boots, socks and even cans of tuna.  After thawing out a little we decided to have an easy day as we’d shot two good bulls each and we didn’t see any point shooting more. We dried out some gear and took some great photos. In the afternoon we climbed to the ridge behind camp. In 15 minutes of glassing we had seen over 20 bulls. It was a wonderful experience just to sit and watch them do there thing as the rut was in full swing and they were chasing nannies all over the place. 

Below is the view from camp looking down the Poerua River towards the coast. This photo is taken from about halfway up the river and the coastline is visible as the “horizon”.  The dark horizontal band running through the green paddock is the main west coast road and at night we could see trawlers fishing out to sea.  Although its only about 7km to the road there was no way in or out other than helicopter as there were bluffs just below our camp and a large waterfall in the river that looked impassable.

Resident camp wrecker.  Every night keas would come into our camp and get into everything.  They are cheeky and will come right up and nibble on your boots if you stay still.  This fella loved getting into our rubbish bag and playing with the handles on the esky, all night.

Pete (right) and I with our trophies.

 

DAY 6: Last day and the weather turned quite nasty. Snow was predicted down low and we were concerned about the helicopter not being able to get in. Twice we heard the helicopter approach and then turn away. Standing around in the snow thinking that we would be stuck for another couple of days was no fun at all.  Luckily the helicopter turned up only one hour late. A quick 10 minute flight back to Whataroa and we were back at John’s truck.  A change of clothes and lunch at the pub in Hokitika then back to Christchurch for the flight home the day after. 

A FEW TIPS:

I don’t pretend to be an expert in tahr hunting but here are a few thoughts and tips for anyone thinking of doing a similar hunt.

Hunting areas

• As a general rule the West Coast in New Zealand has more unpredictable and wetter weather than the East Coast hunting areas.
• Tent camping and flying in can be a pain but normally you can expect to see more and better quality animals, we saw over 40 bulls on our hunt.
• Unless you’ve been a few times and are experienced in alpine conditions, go with a guide. A guide will normally pick you up at the airport and drop you off. We might have taken some bulls on a do-it-yourself hunt but I would not have felt as safe and I doubt it if any of our bulls would have been recovered by us.  We hunted with John Royle from www.tahrhuntingguide.co.nz John was professional, hardworking and very knowledgeable.     

Fitness

•  You have to be fit to hunt tahr.  I was running up to 14km a couple of times per week and going three weight sessions per week for three months before I left and at times I didn’t feel fit enough. 
• If you’re reading this and in your twenties and your want to hunt tahr do it, if you’re in your thirties, don’t wait too long.  If you’re in your fourties you need to prepare well, over a few months.  Regardless of your age be honest about your weight, if you need to lose a few kilos do it but give yourself plenty of time. I started training after New Year for a late May hunt.
• Its best to train specifically for the activity you’ll be doing. For next time I am going to join a gym with a stepping machine as almost all the walking you do will up uphill or downhill.  Distances you walk will generally be less than in Australia, but will be much harder.

Equipment

• I am an average Aussie with a mortgage and two small children. I didn’t have a huge budget for this hunt, with the exception for boots and a raincoat I made do with the gear that I already owned.  Heres a bit of a rundown on the gear I used:
• Rifle – I took my Ruger 30/06 with 150g hand loads. I would have liked to mount a new higher power scope but the Leupold 3-9 X 40 that its worn for years worked well.  I practiced longer shots before the hunt and sighted it in to be 75mm high at 100m, this put the point of impact at 230m.  Although it would be nice to have a specialised rifle for alpine hunting its not really necessary. John our guide uses a Winchester Featherweight in 308. You do need a calibre with some punch as tahr are a strongly built animal. Anything from 270 upwards would be fine. The bottom line is take a rifle with which you shoot well.
• Knives – I took two knives, a larger Buck skinner and a smaller Buck folder.  Both worked well. If you're caping or helping out with your skins a small sharp pocket knife is all you need.
• Boots – good boots are as essential as fitness training. Don’t go without it. You need boots that have a stiff sole “or shank” across the bottom. A rigid boot helps you to keep you footing in steep country. A lot of boots used in Australia are too light and have too much flexibility. This makes them tiring on the legs and joints and also makes them unsafe on the hill. I used Meindl Island Pro and I was very happy with them.
• Raingear – you will get wet at some stage, so you need good rain gear. I bought a Hunters Element Aspiring Jacket on special for $199 and I took some Cabelas Rain Suede rain pants that I’d had for years. I thought that the jacket worked well but the pockets got very wet and cold on some days. The advantage of a good raincoat is that it will keep out wind as well. A couple of small dry bags are good for storing gear and dry clothes.
• Clothing – I already owned a lot of fleece clothing so I took what I had. It was a mix of Ridgeline and Swazi. I have different weights of fleece and a lot of layers so as it got colder I added layers. Some nights I slept in four layers of fleece and two other layers. For my base layers I took poly propylene thermals and skins as well as two light merino wool tops. The merino outperformed the poly by a long way. It is warm, dries quickly and most of all unlike the poly it doesn’t stink after two days. Next time I go I will have all merino base layers.  It is a little more expensive but it is worth it and because it doesn’t stink you can wear it for longer meaning you need less of it. Same goes for socks. I used wool blend materials.  One thinner on the inside and a thicker sock on the outside. Word of warning – keep your dry socks dry at all costs.
• Sleeping gear – I used a Kathmandu down sleeping bag (-7 C) that I’ve owned for years. I found it warm enough, but I did go to bed in a lot of layers. I think it makes it a little easier to get up in the morning that way. I did take a thermal liner but I found it too warm so Pete pinched it. Down is warm and light but, like the socks, must be kept dry at all costs.