Tahr nannies and juvenile males
Image: Dylan Higgison | ©

Himalayan tahr control operations

Introduction

DOC is working with Ngāi Tahu and the Tahr Plan Implementation Liaison Group, to achieve the goals of the Himalayan Tahr Control Plan 1993.

Each year, we work with hunting and conservation stakeholders to produce an operational plan. We do this through the Tahr Plan Implementation Liaison Group (TPILG), which includes numerous stakeholders with an interest in tahr, including hunting, outdoor and conservation groups.

The annual plan outlines how DOC will work in partnership with various groups to control tahr and protect native ecosystems. This includes on and off public conservation land.

Operational Plan 2023/24

This plan was developed through engagement with the TPILG for six months. Their feedback from meetings and in written submissions helped to refine this 2023/24 plan.

View the Tahr Control Operational Plan 2023/24 (PDF, 2,900K)

Updates throughout operations

Official aerial control of tahr under this operational plan concluded inside the feral range in November 2023. Ground-based control operations were run inside the feral range in February and March 2024, and are now complete. Control outside the feral range will continue as weather permits until 30 June 2024.

Maps showing control and bull tahr locations

Maps showing where official aerial control of tahr was undertaken, and where identifiable males were spotted and left for hunters, are available on the tahr sightings and control maps page.

Aim of the control plan

DOC’s Tahr Control Operations are guided by the statutory Himalayan Thar Control Plan 1993. This was developed under section 5(1)(d) of the Wild Animal Control Act 1977. 

The plan sets a maximum population of 10,000 tahr across 706,000 ha of private land, Crown pastoral leases and public conservation land within the tahr feral range. The feral range is the legal boundary of where tahr are allowed to be.

Different control approaches ‘at place’

The control plan details the work we have currently scheduled. A summary of our plans for some places is available below.

Around the midpoint of the control programme DOC and the Game Animal Council met to review the work undertaken. Discussions from that meeting have informed management decisions made for the remainder of the plan period.

Our focus on outside the feral range and national parks

This plan focuses most effort on controlling tahr outside their feral range, with some complementary work outside management units but within the feral range, to prevent tahr spreading into new areas. Substantial effort is also allocated to tahr control in national parks, to protect these special places.

Hunter-led management for South Rakaia/Rangitata (Management Unit 1)

DOC is supporting the Game Animal Council in partnership with Te Rūnanga o Arowhenua to develop a plan for hunter-led management of the South Rakaia/Rangitata (MU1).

The scope of hunter-led management and the activities it encompasses are still being developed but could involve hunters managing tahr populations, documenting the number of tahr controlled by hunters and reporting on and the health of ecosystems. DOC is excited to see what can be achieved by working together with the group on this opportunity.

Work in other management units

Within other management units, effort within this plan will focus on places which are difficult for recreational hunters to access, but where tahr numbers and/or impacts are high.

We will not target identifiable male tahr over the 425,000 hectares of public conservation lands inside the management units outside national parks.

Official control of tahr is largely delivered using the established control tool of aerial hunting. Official aerial control within the tahr feral range focuses on winter and early spring to maximise control efficiency and minimise conflict with recreational users, including hunters.

In 2023/24 year we also used professional ground hunters and targeted management hunts conducted by hunting groups to control tahr, particularly in forest areas where animals can be hard to spot from the air.

New research to support our planning

DOC’s research and monitoring programme is continuing this year with several initiatives underway to learn more about the tahr population and ecosystems.

We will analyse data from the remeasurment of historic vegetation plots that concluded in early 2023; this will be used to analyse long-term tahr impacts on alpine vegetation communities. We will also continue the development of a new programme, piloted during 2022/23, to look at how different tahr population densities impact vegetation condition.

In early 2023 a series of aerial surveys were undertaken to inform a new estimate of the tahr population on public conservation land across the management units. The results from that survey are available below, and on tahr and conservation page along with other research and monitoring information relating to tahr

More information

Previous control plans and decisions

Read previous Tahr Control Operational Plan documents and related information on control planning decisions:

Supporting documents

Reports on the impacts of Himalayan tahr

Population monitoring reports

Find tahr hunting ‘hotspots’

DOC is mapping the locations of tahr observed on public conservation land.

Use our tahr sightings maps to plan hunts on conservation land, or find areas where you can hunt tahr and other wild animals.

Back to top