SIKA Show Gets Tough on Illegal Hunting
Hunting safety, etiquette and education are top priorities in October’s SIKA Show held in Taupo.
While the show focuses on the SIKA head competition and other categories of hunted animals, Event Director, Mark Bridgman is keen to use the event as an opportunity to promote other messages to the thousands of people who visit the show each year.
“One of the many aims of the SIKA Show is to educate people about responsible and ethical hunting practices, especially to young people new to the sport,” says Bridgman.
It’s one of the reasons show organisers plan to get tough with illegal hunters. From next year, new rules will be in place and trespassed hunters will not be allowed to enter the annual SIKA Show.
The rule change is a reaction to mounting pressure from legitimate hunters as well as land owners, DOC and the NZ Police who want to stop animals that have been killed illegally by poachers, being entered into the competition.
“Poaching frustrates legal hunters, and is a concern around the country,” says Mark Bridgman.
It’s a move supported by the police who are keen to hear from people who spot illegal hunting activity. A South Island group has developed a spread sheet naming people trespassed from properties. It’s a collaborative effort and neighbours are encouraged to communicate and share information. Similar material will be used to establish credentials of competitors at next year’s SIKA Show.
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More information: Mark Bridgman 07 378 4593
South African Rugby Fans Enjoy a Good Hunt
South African Rugby supporters and some team members have been enjoying pig and deer hunting in the central North Island. More used to the vast savannah grassland of home and travelling great distances to hunt, the visitors have appreciated the ease of access they’ve experienced here.
When overhearing a couple of South African supporters say they were bored of bars and buses, Taupo secondary school teacher and lifestyle block owner, Shannon Harrington, got chatting and realising they were keen hunters back home, offered to take them pig hunting. They shot two and having kept their outing a secret from the rest of their group, back at their hotel were both envied and pilloried by their compatriots.
Shannon Harrington’s family, including wife Jenny and three-year-old son Flynn, hunt. He says they get great satisfaction from the sport.
“Hunting is the opposite to cruel,” he says. “The animals are free range, they’re killed humanely and utilised. Hunting is good exercise, helps control wild animals and gives us a sense of adventure as well as providing us with food.”
How to cook wild food is another attraction at the SIKA show. Together with wild game butchers chefs from local Taupo restaurants will demonstrate how easy it is to prepare tasty and healthy meals from wild game, and how to create wild flavours from farmed venison, pork and beef.
Mark Bridgman hopes the free samples of their savoury sensations will whet appetites for wild food and give people confidence to try new methods at home. A range of cooking appliances from smokers to barbecues will also be on show, with experts demonstrating their best use.
Young children usually do best at the ‘roaring competition’ but it’s open to everyone and always draws a crowd.
The SIKA Show is at the Taupo Event Centre on 15 and 16 October. Like us on Facebook or check out www.sikashow.co.nz.
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More information:
Mark Bridgman: 07 378 4593
Shannon Harrington: 07 378 6425
Sika Show- August
Australasia’s most significant and largest hunting trade show and Sika competition is less than two months away and organisers are still fielding calls from those keen to exhibit, even though the show sold out weeks ago.
It’s a much-awaited event and SIKA Show director, Mark Bridgman, says the show’s success is as much to do with passion as with the extensive range of prizes and exhibitors, that continues to grow each year. The SIKA show also gives mates an opportunity to get together and for those unfamiliar with hunting, the show is a chance to discover what hunting is all about.
Now held at Taupō’s Event Centre, the SIKA Show started back in 1993 and was held at the nearby Spa Hotel. It was a fairly low-key affair, the result of a conversation between noted Sika hunter Neil Philpott and wildlife biologist Cam Speedy, who worked for DOC at the time. Then, as now, the competition aimed to get better information and data on the health of the central North Island Sika herd, using jaw analysis as a tool.
Volunteers from the Taupo branch of NZDA provided the Douglas Score measurers and have been doing so ever since. With an emphasis on symmetry, the Douglas Score is the chief scoring system used for trophies caught in the wild throughout the Pacific and Australasia. The scoring system was developed by Norman Douglas, a Waikato member of NZDA who had greatly appreciated symmetry and balance in nature. The Douglas Score was eventually adopted as the national organisation’s official measuring system in 1959.
Mark Bridgman is keen to stress that it’s not the biggest or best trophy SIKA stag that wins prizes in the competition.
“The show is about participation and having the biggest is not always the best,” he says, adding a sports analogy: “While it’s nice to win, it’s just as good to get out and do it.”
There is a range of categories for prizes in the competition, including ‘most unusual head’, two women’s categories, a DOC prize for the best representative Sika head shot on public conservation land and many more including the ‘Judge’s Choice’ and ‘random draw’.
“To get useful information you need to collect from a broad range of data,” says Mark Bridgman. “This means that all entries to the SIKA Show are valuable for providing detail to wildlife managers that will eventually feed back to hunting.”
The competition’s not just about Sika deer either. An ‘All Species’ categories includes Hybrid deer, Goat Chamois, Tahr, pigs, wild sheep, Samba, Rusa, Whitetail and Fallow. Scenic, game, birds and human interest photos can also win prizes.
The SIKA show continues to showcase science and information on SIKA deer. A collaborative study, headed by Cam Speedy of Wildlife Management Associates with funding from a range of organisations and individuals, including the SIKA show, Hunters and Habitats and Poronui hunting has been tracking SIKA stags for just over 12 months in the Taharua Valley.
Sika Show Science
SIKA Science and Sustainability
The SIKA Show, held every year in Taupo, is a competition, the largest trade show of its kind in Australasia and a platform for science, conservation and wild animal management.
Event director, Mark Bridgman wants hunters to appreciate the role they play in wildlife management.
“To get useful information you need to collect from a broad range of data,” he says.
“This means that all entries to the SIKA Show are valuable for providing detail to wildlife managers that will eventually feedback to hunting.”
Jaws, collected from Sika deer, tell an incredible story. Deer growth is directly related to nutrition and by studying the animal’s jaw; hunters and herd managers get an insight into the quality of its habitat. The jaw bone is the most easily removed and provides an accurate assessment of both the animal’s age and its relative state of health.
Information on a Sika deer tracking programme will be available at the SIKA Show. The programme was introduced last year on Poronui NZ, a 6000 acre block east of Taupo. 15 Sika stags were fitted with radio tracking collars and twice a month the stags are tracked and their movements plotted on GIS.
The annual SIKA Show is on at Taupō’s Event Centre on October 15 and 16 and while the focus is on hunting paraphernalia and the Sika competition itself, wildlife managers want hunters to take a direct role in protecting the long-term sustainability of hunting in the central North Island.
Sika deer were successfully introduced to New Zealand in 1905. They’re smaller and more difficult to hunt than red deer which makes Sika trophies highly valued.
Ends.
More information:
Mark Bridgeman: 07 378 4593 or 027 2909 319
www.sika-show.co.nz or ‘like’ the SIKA Show Facebook page
More to hunting than camouflage
Stereotypes don’t always match their image. Take hunters. They’re not all cartridge carrying males kitted out in camouflage. It’s a recreation pursuit also enjoyed by women and young people from all over New Zealand. Hunters put food on the table, enjoy being outdoors and play an important role in conservation and tourism. It’s a healthy sport taking place in some of New Zealand’s most beautiful landscapes.
All this is celebrated at the SIKA Show, held each year in Taupō. It’s an event which attracts a growing number of participants, exhibitors and visitors and proves that great things come from simple beginnings and quiet conversations. Held this year at Taupō’s Event Centre on 15 and 16 October, the SIKA Show is now the biggest outdoor trade show of its kind in Australasia. Around 5,000 people came through the doors last year and organisers expect that number to increase. Exhibitor’s stands sold out almost as quickly as the event registration opened.
While the focus is on hunting paraphernalia and the Sika competition itself, the show also provides excellent entertainment for all members of a family. The cliché, ‘something for everyone’, holds true. Exhibitors from around the country, and overseas, put up colourful stands full of interesting goods, prizes and give-aways. The coffee’s great, the food wild. Around 120 exhibitors ranging from helicopter operators, clothing and sports dealers, tour guides to mountain safety and conservation staff; all guaranteeing a good day out.
There are plenty of experts at the show to help people new to the sport learn how to get started safely and responsibly, although favourite hunting spots may not be revealed.
SIKA show event director, Mark Bridgman, says the reason the show is such a success is because of people’s passion as well as its range of exhibits and new opportunities.
Sika deer were successfully introduced to New Zealand in 1905. They’re smaller and more difficult to hunt than red deer making Sika trophies highly valued. The idea of a Sika competition came from wanting to get more information about the health of the Central North Island’s Sika herd. While the original goal was to provide data and create an opportunity for hunters to gather, the show has developed into an event that successfully brings a diverse range of people together.
Hunters entering the SIKA Show competition bring along their trophy heads to be measured on the Douglas score. But it’s not just the biggest or highest scoring that wins. “There’s a fantastic range of prize categories and plenty of spot prizes so everyone who enters has a chance of winning,” says Mark Bridgman.
Anyone concerned about missing the Rugby World Cup semi-finals that weekend can catch all the games and the atmosphere at Taupō’s RWC Fanzones. There’s always more than one great reason to visit and stay in Taupō.
To find out more about the upcoming SIKA Show, go to www.sika-show.co.nz or ‘like’ the SIKA Show Facebook page and more about the rugby on www.taupo2011.com.
Media contact: Mark Bridgman, SIKA Show Event Director
Tel: 07 3784593 or email: mark@nzsika.co.nz
Jaw power longer
JAW POWER
Jaws, collected from Sika deer, tell an incredible story. Deer growth is directly related to nutrition and by studying the animal’s jaw, hunters and herd managers get an insight into the quality of its habitat.
The jaw bone is the most easily removed and provides an accurate assessment of both the animal’s age and its relative state of health. This makes the jaw one of the most powerful information tools available in modern wildlife management.
The annual SIKA Show is on at Taupō’s Event Centre on October 15 and 16. While the focus is on hunting paraphernalia and the Sika competition itself, wildlife managers want hunters to take a direct role in protecting the long-term sustainability of hunting in the central North Island.
The SIKA Show has grown into the biggest outdoor trade show of its kind in Australasia with around 5,000 people coming through the doors last year. Organisers expect that number to increase, especially as exhibitor’s stands sold out almost as quickly as event registration opened.
It’s an event that attracts a growing number of participants, exhibitors and visitors and proves that great things come from simple beginnings and quiet conversations. The SIKA Show has excellent entertainment for all members of a family, evidence that the cliché, ‘something for everyone’, holds true.
Sika deer were successfully introduced to New Zealand in 1905. They’re smaller and more difficult to hunt than red deer which makes Sika trophies highly valued.
The idea of a Sika competition arose from wanting to get more information about the health of the central North Island’s Sika herd. And, while that original goal holds true with the SIKA Show providing valuable data, it also gives hunters an opportunity to gather and yarn.
Exhibitors from around the country, and overseas, put up colourful stands full of interesting goods, prizes and give-aways. The coffee’s great, the food wild. Around 120 exhibitors ranging from helicopter operators, clothing and sports dealers, tour guides to mountain safety and conservation staff; all guaranteeing a good day out.
There are plenty of experts at the show to help people new to the sport learn how to get started safely and responsibly, although favourite hunting spots may not be revealed.
SIKA show event director, Mark Bridgman, says the reason the show is such a success is because of people’s passion as well as its range of exhibits and new opportunities.
Hunters entering the SIKA Show competition bring along their trophy heads to be measured on the Douglas score. But it’s not just the biggest or highest scoring that wins. “There’s a fantastic range of prize categories and plenty of spot prizes so everyone who enters has a chance of winning,” says Mark Bridgman.
Jaw Power
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Jaws, not the infamous shark, but collected from Sika deer tell an incredible story. Deer growth is directly related to nutrition and by studying the animal’s jaw hunters and herd managers get an insight into the quality of its habitat.
The annual SIKA Show is on at Taupō’s Event Centre on October 15 and 16. While the focus is on hunting paraphernalia and the Sika competition itself, wildlife managers want hunters to take a direct role in protecting the long-term sustainability of hunting in the central North Island.
Sika deer were successfully introduced to New Zealand in 1905. They’re smaller and more difficult to hunt than red deer making Sika trophies highly valued. The idea of a Sika competition came from wanting to get more information about the health of the Central North Island’s Sika herd.
The jaw is one of the most powerful information tools available in modern wildlife management.
Collared
Collared: secrets of the Sika stag
How far will males go to find the perfect mate? In the Sika world, quite a distance. And the females – well, why travel when eventually their stag will come?
Sika deer are prized by hunters. They were successfully introduced to New Zealand in 1905 and are smaller and more difficult to hunt than red deer.
To find out more about their lifestyle and seasonal habits, 15 Sika stags on Poronui NZ, a 6000 acre block east of Taupo, were fitted with radio tracking collars. Twice a month the stags are tracked and their movements plotted on GIS. Helicopters and fixed wing aircraft are used to track the tricky ones, it’s expensive, but saves a lot of time.
Hidden cameras in some of their favourite habitat reveal even more Sika secrets and while adults and young males behave quite differently, with the collected data wildlife managers hope to predict their future behaviour and travel patterns.