stry wrote:You misunderstand me
By "lack of research and of clear goals" I am not saying that aerial shooting should, or should not be undertaken.
I am unaware of any but vague estimates of population. I am also unaware of any specific goals re numbers to be removed. Unless I have missed something, these two factors surely equate to lack of research and consequently a lack of meaningful goals. There also appears to not be any concentration on females, which is vital to a reduction of numbers, and ideally creating an environmentally harmonious population level, which is what we had with sambar deer many years ago. These thoughts apply only to deer, not horses.
I have no problem with the short term closures and agree with your comments in that regard.
I suspected your meaning was not clear to me and appreciate the clarification. It has been difficult to try any Sambar population estimates. The current methods of counting don't work very well with an animal this well adapted to hiding during the day. Sambar are often solitary but will group at various times. Research has been attempted to determine the extent of the deer's roam but they have not been able to capture a sambar to collar it. The best efforts have been to determine the extent of deer specific impact in areas. Males tend to create and use wallows more and that has a significant impact on water courses. One of the specific areas being targeted is heavily weighted with males. I believe that is over in the Fainters. Males also rub trees. Females are important to target because they are the breeders but as browser feeders might cause less direct impact. I am not aware of any operations where females are not shot if seen.
As far as goals go, that is all related to how much money there is available. When you hear about deer running around the streets of Melbourne all of a sudden people get interested but it is more about protecting Melbourne water sources. The Vic National Parks Act is not ambiguous. Exotic species in the parks are to be eradicated (where possible) or controlled if eradication is not possible. There is no consideration of a sustainable number (I would not call any number environmentally harmonious as small populations still cause damage) so these measures will continue while there is money in the budget.
Lophophaps wrote:Some management activities require inconvenience for users. In the short term the park is closed. In the long term the park is enhanced. Also, the end of April is shoulder bushwalking season, autumn, chance of cold and bad weather more probable than early April. There will not be many people on the High Plains when the shooting is underway. I wonder if drones have a place for identifying feral locations so that the shooters can proceed directly to the deer, or if deer can be herded to the shooters. This may work with feral horses.
Herding Sambar will not work as they are not in large groups. Some of the country I have seen the chopper in is heavily timbered. I watched it fly below the visible canopy up a creek line and heard shots of a series of minutes. I have read of some other species being herded to more open area so a better shot can be taken. No real need to herd horses but I doubt it would be approved. BLM are doing it in the US and cop a fair bit of flack. They herd to yards and the horses are trucked out. There has been some criticism of the chase time of horses being too long so I doubt that would get a tick from the RSPCA. Horses are usually in family groups of 10 to 15 and there will be some bachelor groups. I think most of the horses on BHP have been removed.