Big game hunting in New Zealand: per capita effort, harvest and expenditure in 2011–2012

Figures & data

Table 1 Monthly activity survey response statistics.

Month hunted	Opening date	Last response received	Days	Number invited	Number who finished	Number useable	% of invitees who finished	% of starters who finished
June 2011	06/07/11	01/08/11	27	579	436	434	75.3	95.8
July 2011	03/08/11	31/08/11	29	722	564	562	78.1	97.1
Aug 2011	05/09/11	27/09/11	23	791	574	572	72.6	98.3
Sept 2011	07/10/11	28/10/11	22	862	621	620	72.0	99.2
Oct 2011	03/11/11	28/11/11	26	927	659	657	71.1	99.2
Nov 2011	02/12/11	23/12/11	22	947	670	669	70.7	98.2
Dec 2011	10/01/12	30/01/12	21	942	649	647	68.9	98.6
Jan 2012	07/02/12	28/02/12	22	940	635	632	67.6	99.2
Feb 2012	06/03/12	28/03/12	23	936	647	644	69.1	99.1
Mar 2012	04/04/12	27/04/12	24	930	624	623	67.1	98.9
April 2012	07/05/12	24/05/12	18	922	626	623	67.9	99.4
May 2012	05/06/12	27/06/12	23	918	609	607	66.3	100.0
June 2012	10/07/12	27/07/12	18	368	229	228	62.2	100.0
Total				10,784	7543	7518	69.9	98.7

Table 2 Hunter participation by species hunted.

Species	Number of respondents	Hunting trips per year	Days hunted per year	Hunting experience (years)	Age (years)	NZDA member
Total	1251	15.63	30.53	20.57	38.40	31%
		(0.58)	(0.85)	(0.41)	(0.38)	(1%)
		[10]	[22]	[19]	[38]
Any deer	1221 (98%)	15.40**	30.40	20.67*	38.56***	32%***
		(0.59)	(0.86)	(0.41)	(0.38)	(1%)
		[10]	[22]	[19]	[38]
Red deer	1151 (92%)	15.85	31.16***	20.80**	38.54	32%***
		(0.61)	(0.90)	(0.43)	(0.40)	(1%)
		[10]	[24]	[19]	[38]
Fallow deer	702 (56%)	16.79**	33.67***	20.34	37.87	34%**
		(0.81)	(1.21)	(0.54)	(0.50)	(2%)
		[10]	[24]	[18]	[37]
Sika deer	392 (31%)	15.76	33.76**	21.97**	39.54**	39%***
		(1.10)	(1.77)	(0.73)	(0.69)	(2%)
		[10]	[22.5]	[19]	[39]
Pigs	812 (65%)	18.70	35.44***	19.99*	36.85***	28%***
		(0.84)	(1.20)	(0.50)	(0.47)	(2%)
		[12]	[25]	[17]	[35]
Tahr	390 (31%)	17.24*	37.77***	21.63*	37.35*	37%***
		(1.06)	(1.66)	(0.72)	0.72)	(2%)
		[12]	[30]	[20]	[36]
Chamois	401 (32%)	17.46**	38.01***	20.24	35.78***	32%
		(1.04)	(1.74)	(0.68)	(0.67)	(2%)
		[12]	[30]	[18]	[34]

Statistics are: Mean (standard error of the mean) [Median]. Significance of Z-tests for differences in means between hunters in the identified groups and hunters not in those groups is shown by the asterisks (*for significantly different at 10% level, **for 5%, and ***for 1%). Source: Demographic survey.

Figure 1 Temporal distribution of mean effort and mean kills of big game animals, weighted by trips per month.

Table 3 Trip characteristics by species targeted.

	Species
	Any	Red	Sika	Fallow	Pigs	Tahr	Chamois
Number of hunts	4600	2924	495	775	1700	338	485
Hunt duration (days)	2.14	2.17	2.50	2.03	1.93	3.52	2.89
	(0.03)	(0.04)	(0.09)	(0.07)	(0.06)	(0.15)	(0.11)
Number of hunters in the party	2.09	2.00	2.01	2.14	2.15	2.50	2.18
	(0.02)	(0.02)	(0.04)	(0.05)	(0.03)	(0.08)	(0.05)
One way travel distance (km)	125.52	121.11	156.12	123.78	91.14	270.06	200.19
	(2.62)	(3.14)	(6.74)	(5.39)	(3.09)	(14.32)	(9.41)
One way travel time (hours)	3.16	3.06	3.09	2.77	2.50	5.48	5.28
	(0.12)	(0.16)	(0.29)	(0.21)	(0.20)	(0.47)	(0.54)
Trip cost ($)	114.24	110.16	158.51	92.83	78.77	255.76	181.54
	(3.58)	(4.00)	(10.36)	(4.50)	(3.52)	(27.84)	(11.41)
4WD used off-road (%)	46.3	45.5	26.7	60.6	58.1	51.0	44.1
	(0.7)	(0.9)	(2.0)	(1.8)	(1.2)	(2.7)	(2.3)
Helicopter used (%)	5.3	5.1	11.2	2.3	2.0	15.7	10.7
	(0.3)	(0.4)	(1.4)	(0.5)	(0.3)	(2.0)	(1.4)
Kills per hunt: Any game	0.91	0.86	0.70	1.43	1.09	1.74	1.26
	(0.03)	(0.05)	(0.06)	(0.16)	(0.06)	(0.24)	(0.18)
Kills per hunt: Any deer	0.51	0.62	0.67	1.17	0.38	0.39	0.53
	(0.03)	(0.04)	(0.06)	(0.14)	(0.03)	(0.13)	(0.10)
Kills per hunt: Red deer	0.31	0.50	0.09	0.38	0.28	0.27	0.38
	(0.01)	(0.02)	(0.02)	(0.06)	(0.02)	(0.08)	(0.06)
Kills per hunt: Sika deer	0.06	0.01	0.55	0.00	0.01	0.00	0.00
	(0.01)	(0.00)	(0.05)	(0.00)	(0.00)	(0.00)	(0.00)
Kills per hunt: Fallow deer	0.13	0.11	0.03	0.77	0.08	0.13	0.15
	(0.01)	(0.02)	(0.01)	(0.08)	(0.02)	(0.06)	(0.05)
Kills per hunt: Pigs	0.30	0.19	0.03	0.19	0.68	0.13	0.30
	(0.02)	(0.02)	(0.01)	(0.04)	(0.04)	(0.07)	(0.09)
Kills per hunt: Tahr	0.07	0.02	0.00	0.05	0.02	1.10	0.22
	(0.01)	(0.00)	(0.00)	(0.01)	(0.01)	(0.12)	(0.04)
Kills per hunt: Chamois	0.02	0.02	0.00	0.02	0.01	0.11	0.21
	(0.00)	(0.00)	(0.00)	(0.01)	(0.00)	(0.02)	(0.02)

Means are weighted by hunts per month (standard errors in parentheses). The number of hunts targeting specific species exceeds the total number of hunts because hunters target multiple species on the same trip. Bold entries are number of target species kills per trip.

Source: Monthly activity surveys.

Figure 2 Annual kill distribution.

Table 4 Annual kills based on hunters' recall over the previous year. Big game includes all deer species, pigs, chamois and tahr, but not goats. All species includes big game plus goats. % > 0 is the percentage of hunters who killed at least one animal of that species.

		All hunters			Hunters targeting this species
Species	Mean	SEM	% > 0	Median	Mean	SEM	% > 0	Median
Red deer	2.771	0.201	59.1	1	2.909	0.212	62.7	1
Fallow deer	1.121	0.121	26.6	0	1.853	0.200	41.8	0
Pigs	3.682	0.544	31.1	0	5.542	0.822	43.5	0
Total deer	4.529	0.299	69.3	2	4.597	0.302	70.6	2
Total big game	8.922	0.694	74.6	4	8.922	0.694	74.6	4
Total all species	16.841	1.658	76.8	5	n.a.

Source: May 2012 monthly activity survey.

Table 5 Participation and harvest estimates (standard errors in parentheses).

	Sample	Recall period	Mean hunts per annum	Mean days per annum	Mean annual big game harvest
A	Demographic survey	Annual	15.63	30.53	na
	[May–November 2011]		(0.58)	(0.85)
B	Monthly survey	Annual	16.68	32.17	8.92
	[May 2012]		(0.77)	(1.04)	(0.69)
C	Monthly surveys	Monthly	17.65	37.79	16.06
	[June 2011–June 2012]		(0.28)	(2.82)	(1.44)
ZAB			1.089	1.221
ZAC			3.136	2.465
ZBC			1.184	1.870	4.474

Z_XY is the absolute value of the Z-score for the difference in means of X and Y.

Table 6 Monthly expenditure on big game hunting related items (NZ$).

Item	Mean	SEM	% of total
Firearms and ammunition	75.50	4.07	25
Transport, excluding vehicles	57.04	2.98	19
Optics	47.16	4.52	16
Other spending	30.76	3.69	10
Clothing	25.95	1.04	9
Food	22.49	0.70	8
Camping equipment	18.30	1.02	6
Dogs and dog care	12.25	0.85	4
Media (books, magazines, etc.)	7.41	0.32	2
Total	296.78	8.95	100

Source: Monthly activity surveys.