HIKMICRO and Huntsman Optics Partner to Support Fiordland Wapiti Foundation in Pest Management and Conservation

Recently, HIKMICRO, Australia and New Zealand distributor Huntsman Optics have launched a partnership to support the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation in Pest Management And Conservation.

The Fiordland Wapiti Foundation was formed to address the potential threat to the flora and fauna of the Fiordland National Park caused by Wapiti deer, an introduced species, while maintaining a quality herd for future trophy hunting opportunities. Over the years, it has been devoted to managing the effects of wapiti deer in Fiordland National Park. It also supports conservation projects from endangered species recovery programs to control introduced pests. Since 2005, it has accounted for over 18,000 unwanted deer to date.

Herd Management Strategies

The Fiordland Wapiti Foundation's herd management strategies are very simplistic, the number one goal is to protect the environment of Fiordland by undertaking the right amount of deer control in the Wapiti area. Following closely behind this is providing a high-quality, low-density Wapiti herd for hunters to hunt.

How to achieve this and produce large antlers? Large antlers are genetics, age, and diet.

Feed: The Wapiti Foundation manages this through their animal management program and on average the Foundation shoot 1000 deer per year. Looking after the environment by having a low density of deer is also crucial for having a healthy herd-synergy.

Genetics: How to do deer identification? Wapiti have been cross breeding with Red deer for almost 100 years and visually it's very hard to tell how much Wapiti blood vs Red deer blood a Fiordland Wapiti has. Until now, the reliable visual marker is the body weight. It seems that the more Wapiti blood a Fiordland Wapiti has, the heavier the animal is. Normally, the strategy will be:

• • If it's a Red deer it gets shot.
  • If it's under the age of 4.5 years it lives.
  • If it's over the age of 4.5 years and it's not showing trophy potential, it gets shot.
  • If it's over the age of 4.5 years and has trophy potential, it lives. 

Females: The Wapiti Foundation also has a simplistic approach to managing the females of the Wapiti herd. The results have shown that in the wild there will be a large amount of females and low amount of males. So the strategy will be, that anything that was a Red deer was removed but in reverse to the male strategy, older females were removed, as the best genetics in the Wapiti herd under human management should be the young deer.

*The data and conclusion above are from Fiordland Wapiti Foundation official website. 

HIKMICRO and Huntsman Optics Donate Flagship Thermal Products

The Fiordland Wapiti foundation held their inaugural wapiti weekend exhibition show on Saturday 30 June 2023 to Sunday 1st July. The show attracted over 50 suppliers and foundations that had trade booths to showcase their products. Over 2400 people attended the show over the weekend. The weekend was held to celebrate 100 years since the first Wapiti Bull was legally shot at Lake Katherine in the Fiordland National Park, and to showcase what Te Anau had to offer in the middle of winter.

HIKMICRO and Huntsman Optics had a booth in conjunction with Hunting and Fishing Invercargill. We set up a dynamic display of HIKMICRO products and had a lot of client interaction and engagement. As the leading thermal brand in New Zealand, HIKMICRO is committed to supporting nature in the balance, and donates a brand-new THUNDER series TQ50 2.0 on the show. THUNDER 2.0 TQ50 was just released in Australia and New Zealand one month before, and it is a quality product that will find a place in the Australian market. It ticks all the boxes with respect to the essential elements one should consider when choosing a thermal device. THUNDER 2.0 delivers class-leading thermal sensitivity, as well as superior ergonomics, and a robust build that you can rely on in the field. It can definitely be an ideal thermal hunting scope for professional hunters. 

HIKMICRO in conjunction with Huntsman Optics have committed to helping the Fiordland Wapiti foundation in their pest control and conservation efforts in the Fiordland National Park and look forward to continue growing a healthy relationship for the future betterment of New Zealand's Natural resources.

*Before purchasing anythermal or digital day & night vision device, please make sure you adhere to the local ledislation and only use it when it is allowed. Our ambassadors come from various countries and travel a lot, which allows them to test different devices. We do not encourage or support the illegal use of our devices in any events.