We will work with you to reduce pest damage to an economically or environmentally acceptable level.
We travel extensively throughout New Zealand delivering a comprehensive range of effective conservation and wildlife management services.
We specialise in the management of animal pest control including feral deer, goat, pig, wallaby, rabbits and corvids for conservation crop and livestock protection.
We also specialise in the management of plant pest control including restoration planting of native trees and shrubs, as well as management of wildling pines.
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Defining the extent of the issuecan be problematic but essential
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Accurate and effective assessment and monitoring are vital for your management plan
The deer population has been building over the past couple of decades across the country.
Deer are selective browsers and target specific forest species over others. This can result in significant changes to forest composition and has effects on the fauna that rely on those plants.
Deer are highly adaptive feeders that can destroy the understory of native forests by browsing, grazing, bark stripping and trampling, compaction and wallowing, which can increase soil erosion and impact plant biodiversity. Feral deer can reduce production by damaging crops and exotic forests, and in high numbers, they graze large amounts of pasture.
They also damage native forests by feeding on forest plants, trees, and seedlings. Stags thrashing and rubbing with their antlers also damage vegetation.
In subalpine areas, deer can damage tall tussocks and wildflowers like alpine buttercups. By targeting these plants and altering the forest structure, deer can change the composition of plants. This takes vital food and shelter from other animals. Over time this can hinder or stop forest regeneration.
As a known vector of bovine tuberculosis (Tb), deer have been implicated in the transmission of bovine Tb, which is a disease that threatens the agricultural industry.
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Feral pig populations have the reproductive ability to double in size annually.
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Feral pigs are omnivorous and opportunistic feeders. Plant food includes fruits, grasses, the base of nikau fronds and the roots of many species, as well as eggs or animals such as ground nesting birds, young rabbits, new born lambs, frogs, lizards, native land snails, ells, rodents and any carrion such as dead stock or possums.
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Pigs can be active at any time of the day or night, with the period of least activity being mid afternoon, the majority of activity being around dawn and dusk. Pigs quickly adapt to hot weather and hunting pressure by becoming more nocturnal in their activities
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Feral pigs impact native ecosystems, pastoral production and contribute to bovine tuberculosis (TB)
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Young trees can be dug up and their roots eaten, affecting new plantings of exotic forestry. In some cases larger trees can be ringbarked
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Some species of ground nesting birds can be seriously compromised by pig predation of eggs and chicks and by burrow destruction.
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Wallaby have become a significant pest and feed on native tree seedlings, ferns and grasses to such an extent that over time they limit the regeneration of some species, altering the structure and composition of our native forests. Some of the species selectively browsed by wallaby are important as a food source for native birds and wildlife.
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In exotic plantations wallaby can damage pine and eucalyptus seedlings.
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On farmland they compete with stock for pasture.
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Goats eat native and farmed plants, and trample large areas of vegetation.
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Goats are well adapted to a wide range of environments, favouring steep, rocky terrain and slip faces that many other animals cannot easily reach. This contributes to erosion and inhibits revegetation on steeper classes of land.
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In native forests, continued goat browsing of understory shrubs and regenerating trees alters forest structure. This also creates a more favourable habitat for other pests such as possums.
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Goats can also severely damage exotic forests by browsing young trees, and by stripping bark from older trees.
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Largely an agricultural pest, rabbits compete with livestock for pasture. 7-10 rabbits consume as much as one ewe.
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They are a stable food source for mammalian carriers of bovine Tb.
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Populations can build quickly in optimal conditions, females can adjust litter-sizes based on food availability.
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Burrowing and scrapes cause extensive damage, especially erosion prone soils.
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They browse on vulnerable native plant communities and restoration plantings.
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Magpies are known to harass and kill a variety of native and introduced birds, they also eat insects and lizards.
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We can provide endangered bird protection.
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Magpies can be very aggressive during the breeding season, defending their territory and attack animals and humans.
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They are known to harass and kill lambs
