Hunting in the Hutt Valley

I have often wondered how it felt to hunt ever since Uncle David had given us smoked venison when we  visited them in Aguid, Sagada, Mt. province. That was many decades ago and when my siblings and I were still wee ones. That was the first and last time I had venison in the Philippines.The mountains nearby Aguid had plenty of trees, mostly pine trees growing then. But not anymore.

The next time I ate venison was here in New Zealand. One of my partner's hobby is hunting. Hunting deer and pigs and sometimes women .

There are many kinds of animals being hunted here because they are considered animal pests. Some of them are:

Chamois (Chammy) - Anteloped goat that was a gift from the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef to New Zealand in 1907.

Fallow Deer (dama dama) - a smaller type of deer with differing color phases.

Whitetail Deer - extremely wary and most vocal among the deer. Introduced from England in 1905.

Sambar Deer -large bodied deer. Introduced from Ceylon in 1875.

Rusa Deer - shy and essentially nocturnal. Introduced from New Caledonia in 1908.

Sika Deer - smart,beautiful and cunning animals.

Red Deer - largest round-horned deer. Introduced from England and Australia.

Moose - introduced to NZ in 1910. There has not been any sightings of them for some years now.

Wapiti - large animals with very large antlers.

Pigs - first introduced by Captain Cook and other explorers.

Himalayan Tahr - mountain goat gifted by the 11th Duke of Bedford in 1903 to NZ.

Ducks - hunting  starts first week of May and runs for 3 months.

Opossums - introduced from Australia for its fur.

Rabbits - introduced by settlers in the 1880's

Hares -  introduced from Britain in the 1880's for sport.

Wallaby - introduced from Australia in the 1870's .

Pheasant - introduced by the first English settlers in 1842 in Wellington.


With the venison  taste in my tongue, it created an urge for me to go see the deer in its habitat. But before I could go hunting, I had to do this first:

http://authspot.com/poetry/upper-hutts-great-outdoors/