Moving Forward 2020 - full article
HillDog Safaris·Wednesday, February 19, 2020·Reading time: 12 minutes
"Why did you shoot that?"
It is what hunters often hear, referring to the hind laying at their feet....
It directly relates to the full ‘stag stigma’ surrounding Sambar.
So often hunters silently stalk past or around female sambar in search of antlers, which belong to the elusive sambar stag. This is fine, however, most will go home empty handed or with a few happy snaps of the hinds,
But there are quite a few who will come across a reasonable stag during these hunts, which look quite good on the hoof and ‘in-the-moment’ which unfortunately ends that Stag’s life there and then (this could be at six years for interest sake, knowing stags need 8-10 years for full growth potential).
This usually only results in the hunter experiencing ‘ground shrinkage’ - a term which is used to sum up such excuses like “I thought he was bigger”, “he looked good as he ran off”, “I could only see his brows" and finally the old faithful “great hunt; needed dog food”.
Basically it is when the antlers are much smaller than the hunter’s initial glance confirmed and these antlers end up half-boiled out and piled up near the woodshed.
In the realest terms I can express: we are all out there chasing dream living stags - we have been inspired by huge antlered animals from the United States and across North America specifically. But what Aussies fail to realise and understand is the scale of the wildlife management in those specific areas for those trophy animals to exist.
What relevance does this have on our sambar, you ask? As there seems to be Trophy stags everywhere!?
Australia, and in particular Victoria, is now abundant with sambar deer but this, as we know, was not always the case.
Sambar have slowly moved north from down south, up through the ranges into the north-east, at a fairly steady rate for years.
That was until the herd experienced its first widespread bushfires - at first in some sections of their home range - then later throughout the whole home range.
This created impenetrable bush where no man was to hunt, or no man and his hounds would venture so deep into the mountains, as the pressure from hunters and other hound crews was not too unreasonable, as today would see.
In turn this provided ample area where only deer could thrive, ensuring they were undetected by many, simply due to the cover of the Jungles.
During these times, and before my time, I have heard mention of "hunting the wave" of deer (some five to ten years behind the fire fronts) which with a stag-mentality, it makes sense.
This is where I feel hunters who were hunting during these periods held the prior mentality of “kill a stag, any stag.. a sambar stag!” and with this hunters overlooked the hinds and just noted their presence as a figure to discuss or boast with hunters and to cause envy among budding hunters or so it would seem on Social Media these days.
In hindsight, had these head hunters been aware of the potential drama these deer would one day cause as the populations recovered and built up in the dense forests, I firmly believe that these Mountain Men would not have wanted helicopters killing their high plains stags.
And they sure as #### would not want too see their famous deer inhumanely targeted with pellet-form 1080 POISON which history has shown devastated an otherwise pristine New Zealand aswell as their world Famous Red Stags.
Rather, had of they known as much as we know about Sambar, their elusiveness and adaptiveness to any environment as well as behavioural traits once a shot is fired, then they would of single-handedly began to help their deer by targeting a lot more hinds, no matter how long or short their hunting 'season' was.
From my research exploring bushland in recent times since the bushfires devastated my stomping ground, I counted excessive numbers of dead female sambar and noted some alive deer in various states of 'survival'.
The biggest eye-opener was the fact that throughout those several valleys I explored there was a huge lack of male Sambar and not only mature stags but a very unbalanced ratio of female to male deer in general.
To me, this screams that going forward from here post-NYE 2020, the 55,000 recreational deer hunters/amatuer conservationists NEED to start thinking and acting well beyond the laptop in which we farm our “likes" to begin to grasp, on a worldwide scale, just what these Sambar deer represent to Us (YOU) before it’s too late. And I cannot stress enough just how close we are to being too late!
What the Sambar represent is a sense of Freedom and adventure among feeling their pride and power in their environment which is undoubtably one of the most unique ‘High Countries’ the world is yet to see.
You and I can go into their environment, escape reality and submerse ourselves up to our eyeballs in sambar country, almost whenever we want, wherever we choose.
We have no authority/organisation limiting what we can or cannot shoot and that’s all for just $50 per year; which is unheard of outside Australia and NZ.
I think it’s crazy to think just how much money some countries pay for their right to fill a freezer or chase a trophy dream.
But that whole tag system or Limited Entry Hunting could one-day become a reality Down Under if politically-motivated groups who are against our way of life and against our deer have any strings to pull in shutting all of this hunting caper down.
Once they POISON or kill a majority (of not only deer), will 55,000 people no longer have a valid legal game animal to “hunt", “sustain" or “manage”?
So what can You do, or what should You? I hear You all ask!
I feel every one of us 55,000 licensed deer hunters need to unite, not only under a banner or logo, but we need to unite as "Victorian Sambar Hunters" and start managing our herd.
By this I mean first and foremost shooting more hinds in general on a mass scale right throughout the state for the next five years. This will not only maintain this herd but prove that hunters (houndsmen included) can manage the bush and the deer, to lower pressure on farmland populations bordering forest.
Be it by spotlighting deer (I'd personally like all farmers to extend their invites for spotlighters so illegal spotlighting can cease in the National Park which in turn “shoots hunters in the foot”.
Moving forward, it helps us, farmers and the deer. So we can continue chasing dreams and telling stories around campfires for generations to come.
The Time is Now!
I have dived into many articles, research papers and listened to a few podcasts since posting my views on social media platforms in which I've been able to reach out to so many hunters.
In turn, so many of you have expressed interest, given information or have passed on professional knowledge studied for some time, all of which has pointed out quite a few key
aspects as to why we
are experiencing this phenomenon.
To put it into somewhat simpler terms, information I have recieved from Mr G Pulvermach B.S.A an.Sc of Alberta, Canada was that most other deer species - Ruts - are fairly heavily influenced by the photoperiod (day length and light intensity); as the season changes the hinds/females will naturally become "ready to breed".
This often sees the biggest oldest male deer fire into action first and, in turn, will have finished "breeding" first for any female which missed out in the first "peak" for whatever the reason (natural or man made) will see these remaining females "recycle" around 21 days later. This will then result in all females breeding with next year’s offspring.
With the Sambar deer, however, there appears to be constant exposure of “hot" females which is extending younger male’s ###ual activity periods and in turn their testosterone levels stay high, resulting in the possibility of stags attaining their antlers longer (sambar have been witnessed to breed whilst in velvet stages).
This outcome will see hinds/females start dropping fawn “out of sync" to the norm for these areas. Over time this becomes quite erratic and escalates the breeding rate as these "out of sync" females become mature and continue on their cycle for their lifetime, dropping more deer at an escalating rate (remembering every hind you passed up gave birth and every other hind you didn’t see also gave birth).
So we can start to put a picture together of a rut which is potentially all-year round in isolated valleys and gulley heads across the state of Victoria which relates to new fawn being born all year round. These fawn come from female deer.
Some observed data from penned Sambar in New Zealand, originating from the North Island and Australia were studied over three-years from 1989 to 1992.
Results recorded from calving pattern and intervals were as follows:
“Sambar birth occurred almost all year round except June and December with a peak during April/May, mean calving interval of identified hinds was 329 days and in each year every adult hind gave birth.”
This led to some very interesting data observed in regards to birth-### ratio and mortality.
“Pooled data from live and dead fawns over three years showed that the ### ratio to Male and Female was 1.6:1.0 (n43), mortality of fawns within 24 hours was 28% (n12/43) with a higher proportion of deaths resulting from exposure 33% (n4) and aggressiveness from adult sambar toward newborns. Also the mortality of male v female fawns was 41% males (n11) and 6% females (n1) respectively, with a note levels of accuracy of causes may not be high due to low numbers of fawns involved.” - New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research.
This explains in general that from the outset, the Sambar stags face the battle from birth. As each individual stag goes through the years to reach a mature trophy/sire he must over come immature decisions to feed out longer after rain, follow his nose to sweet improved pasture and wander creeks to find his own patch, in turn exposing himself to the public. He also doesn’t grasp the dangers of “hot hinds" and their ability to sense danger 24/7, who are so alert that when they bust off, he is unsure and stops to look back over his shoulder to see what the disturbance was (you). He feels proud and strong while the spotlight blinds him, for he is not scared of anything in this environment, his environment. But his life ends right then and there, on unfair terms and conditions in only just six years of his short life of a Sambar stag in Victoria.
He is now sitting behind the wood shed. out of sight from the public.
We've all seen a proper trophy stag on a friend’s wall or local guru’s trophy room, or perhaps only at the Deer Expo exhibitions. You probably found yourself glaring into its eyes, admiring its antlers, getting lost in a mind full of jungle.
Some of these huge heads you never forget seeing. But how it made its way to those walls is often subtle truths mixed with a bit of story telling or Victorian folklore of times gone by in the bush. But I don’t wanna keep talking about these old folklores that surrounds big sambar stags. Instead, I feel we need to be concerned for our future heavyweights of the deer world, which we are slowly learning starts well down the heirarchy in terms of "proper game management”.
Each and every sambar hunter is able to be a part of this by making the most of the opportunity to shoot female deer, which is at no burden to us, the public, or the deer. It only benefits everyone and everything from the ground up. From alpine grasses to deer to the uneducated Australian and more importantly hunters and their family freezers with the absolute pinnacle of Australian deer hunting adorning the lounge room walls in a proudly displayed life-like shoulder mount, showcasing around 30 inches of antler; which will inspire generations of aspiring recreational deer hunters to one day look after, hunt and manage these majestic Sambar deer of Victoria’s High Country.
The bottom line is Victoria’s sambar community is at risk. Not just the deer themselves, but right through to the communities surrounded in sambar habitat.
Hunters must begin to realise the sambar are different and need to be managed differently. For now, this begins with doing our bit in targetting the breeders to minimise the rate of reproduction immediately. This action alone will bring less competition for nutrient feed including less impact on alpine areas, more competition for the mature stags to build up bigger bodies and grow bigger antlers in order to present more dominance in his woods over the immature stags to maximise his passing of genetics.
There is plenty of food-for-thought here in this article. I hope, if anything, it makes you think about what it means to You and what it means for You in the future.
Because too many deer is not too good, as we know.
Feel the movement - be a part of the movement!
cheers big ears. looks betterer on facefook tho haha
