Hunters blamed for illegal release of pigs in ranges

By ANNE BESTON

Hunters are being accused of illegally releasing wild pigs in the Waitakere Ranges, threatening the safety of walkers and trampers in the popular wilderness area.

The Auckland Regional Council says it is also worried about hunters threatening its parks staff.

"There have been some pretty heavy-duty threats made and there is a concern for staff safety," said ARC biosecurity manager Jack Craw.

He said the ranges were one of Auckland's most popular visitor attractions and pigs were deemed a pest under the ARC pest management strategy.

"Pig hunting is completely incompatible with recreational use. It's just as simple as that. We don't want pigs in an area where people are going for a gentle walk."

The council, which administers the Waitakeres, is urgently diverting $20,000 from its parks budget to hire professionals to shoot the pigs. The cull will begin in a few weeks.

Pigs were virtually wiped out in the early 1990s but in the past six to eight months the number in the ranges has shot up again. Hunters are blamed for releasing them for sport.

Mr Craw said pigs caused damage around tracks, uprooted native plants and were particularly fond of native snails found in the area.

On a visit to the ranges last week, he saw 150m of walking track that had been damaged by pigs. He had also seen a relatively high number of walkers.

"I must have passed 20 people in the time I was there and that was in a fairly remote area on a wet day."

Hunters were breaking the law if they allowed dogs off leads and took weapons into the bush, Mr Craw said. Staff had already issued a number of trespass notices to people they suspected were hunting pigs, but issuing the notices had exposed the rangers to threats and abuse.

Senior ranger Scott De Silva said pig poaching in the Waitakeres was the safety issue rather than the pigs themselves.

"There have been reports of people running dogs in the bush and in some cases using firearms."

But Waitakere Ranges Protection Society president John Edgar believed hunters were killing the pigs with knives rather than a gun.

He said pigs went through the bush "like bulldozers", turning over big lumps of earth in search of food.

Mr Craw said the council was asking the public to report suspicious activity, particularly people with groups of dogs or parked utes with dog cages on the back.

The council's policy was that pigs were a designated pest in the Waitakere Ranges, unlike the eastern Hunua Ranges where pig hunting was "tolerated".