http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10461906



Experts have declared as a success a pig cull for which a team of professional hunters from New Zealand was paid US$3.9 million ($5.63 million) to kill 5036 pigs on a Californian island - $1117 a pig.

The Paeroa-based Prohunt NZ company was called in during April 2005 to kill about 2000 pigs on the island of Santa Cruz.

The shooters killed the last of 5036 pigs on July 5 last year.

Scientists now say the cull has been a complete success and the endangered Santa Cruz island fox and nine rare plants are recovering.

The Channel Islands National Park and the private Nature Conservancy, which owns 75 per cent of the island, have been monitoring the results of the eradication 29km off the Ventura County coast.

The island was fenced into five sections, and pigs were methodically culled from each part, with as many as 30 dogs used to track and corral them.

The New Zealanders sometimes shot from a small helicopter, always using non-lead bullets to avoid contaminating young eagles, which often eat dead animals.

Unless they were shot in a riverbed, the pigs were left where they lay.

The conservancy spent more than US$5 million on the project, the rest of the money going to capture and relocate non-native golden eagles.

The native Santa Cruz Island fox, a cat-sized creature found only on the island, was being preyed upon by the eagles, which Park Service officials said migrated to the Channel Islands in the 1990s to feed on the booming population of pigs.

Kate Faulkner, the Park Service's chief of natural resources management, said they expected to spend another US$3 million over the next three years to further improve conditions for native plants.

Prohunt tracked the pigs using helicopters with snipers, traps, dogs and electronic collars.

Officials said the methods were "following euthanasia guidelines set forth by the American Medical Veterinary Association".

"We deny that vehemently," said Richard M. Feldman, a Santa Barbara businessman who sued the park's owners, saying the killings were inhumane and that the Park Service violated its own rules and procedures when it approved the environmental data to support the eradication.

Mr Feldman's suit was dismissed and is now under submission to the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Prohunt has now been contracted to cull deer, pigs and goats on the Nature Conservancy's properties in Hawaii.

- NZPA

This is definitely not what we need any more of in the U.S. These are not "pro hunters", but exterminators. ["Unless they were shot in a riverbed, the pigs were left where they lay. "] The Nature Conservancy And NPS should have allowed hunting on the Island on a regular basis to keep the population of wild pigs in check.

The NPS made a short attempt to use legal hunters, but they were limited to a small area and only a very small number were allowed.

The logic of killing the pigs to save the Island Fox is idiotic. If the Golden Eagle was eating the foxes along with the pigs removing the pigs would focus the Eagles on the foxes. Also the Golden Eagles an endangered also and no doubt stressed by attempts to relocate.

What this does is put another brick in the wall to prevent hunting in this country. Instead of using proven wildlife management by regular legal hunting, they will resort to mass extermination, birth control [ NPS is going to try to get Deer on the pill in Pt Reyes NP] and "humane culling" will be used.

Nature Conservancy is about nature as they see it...absent man.

wow, just think, if they had tried to use US shooters, it would have been bogged down in the courts for centuries. And then a couple of more centuries whilst they discussed what was the proper bullet and rifle to use.

quote:

Unless they were shot in a riverbed, the pigs were left where they lay.

whew!
And I thought the stench coming from the west was the KALI state house.

Top predator,

I agree with most of your points about the native critters on the island. However, feral hogs cannot be exterminated by sport hunters. I am not familiar the the island vegetation but once pressured, hogs will become almost totally nocturnal. A sow will produce up to 20 young per year with a high survival rate. If you could round up enough hunters with good hog dogs, the population can be brought under some degree of control, but over 5000 of the dang things is a tremendous number to bring down by sport or commercial hunters.

I manage public areas in the southeast U.S. with tremendous populations of feral hogs. The hunters want them out, as do we, but the animals get so wild and nocturnal that it is possible to put only a small dent in them.

The USFWS and NPS don't have enough money to implement these extreme measures. The Nature Conservancy does and if they see fit to address an issue, they generally will regardless of cost.

My dealings with TNC have been nothing but positive. If it weren't for them the refuge I manage (and many others) would have never been acquired and opened for public hunting. The former owners were in the process of draining and then clearing the place of timber so it could be farmed.

As hunters, we owe a great debt of gratitude to the Nature Conservancy for the work they do. Merg

Aloha Merg,

There's some things that you bring up that I beg to differ on. Like yourself I work hand in hand with TNC here in Hawaii although I work for a different agency.

I spent a week on Santa Cruz with pro-hunt during their culling operation. I was sent because I am the animal control specialist for our agency. The difference with Santa Cruz if you read the above article is that it was fenced off into five seperate units. Making it a whole lot EASIER to eradicate. Also the terrain and cover on the island was SUPER easy hunting whether using rifles or dogs and trapping.

I will say this though that I in no way shape or form will leave meat to rot its just not my upbringing nor my belief. We were sent there to speak with pro-hunt as a kind of sharing knowledge type of thing. The reason being as stated in the above post is that TNC-Hawaii wants them to come here and do some work and I will tell you this first hand its getting really ugly FAST!!!

I will expound more but gotta go pack right now leaving for a Mouflon Sheep hunt on Lanai Island @ 5 tomorrow morning

Aloha,
Dom

Just to bring this into perspective, I am concerned about the use of these tactics, exterminating wild game, using artificial chemicals to neuter wild animals, and the similar tactics to reduce or eliminate legal hunting. There is an excellent series done by the Washington Post about "The Nature Conservancy." I would never call them anyone that a hunter owes any debt to in any way. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/specials/natureconservancy/

You often see the excuse used to exterminating animals that the animals were destroying the habitat. Taht was not the case on Santa Cruz Island. They killed the pigs to starve the Golden Eagles who were eating "Island Foxes." If that makes sense to you, then you will be in the minority...and moreover, you will then not be able to understand that they went ahead to remove the Golden Eagles by trapping the endangered birds and "relocating them." They also trapped and move onto the Island, Bald Eagles.

The wild pigs and foxes had been on those islands since Spanish explorers left them on all the islands the visited in the Pacific...over 300 years ago.

As for picking up the tag for the extermination, you will be glad to know your tax dollars went to that effort.

We should advocate licensed legal hunting as the best tool for wildlife management, which has been successfully done in this country for decades.

$3.9 million! What a waste of money. No wonder the government has a huge deficit if it makes stupid business decisions like this. There are some people (like me) who would have done it for free.

Sierra Dave, I also disagree with neutering and such as it is impossible to trap wildlife in mass to be effective. And I agree to let us hunters contol surplus wildlife.

Just because they have been here over 300 years does not elevate feral hogs to game animal status. They are domestic animals that readily adapt to wild conditions and have done so virtually world wide.

Like game animals they provide great recreational opportunity but when their numbers get out of control they outcompete our native wildlife such as deer, turkey, squirrels, waterfowl, and even black bear.

They destroy thousands of acres of agricultural crops in the southeastern U.S. Every exotic critter man has stocked over here in the U.S. has caused problems when overpopulated with the exception of the ring-necked pheasant. Your points are well taken.

It sounds like TNC does not operate the same in all states, but in Arkansas they have been great for us and continue to be. Merg