It’s the early 1960s and helicopters have turned the culling business on its head. Aerial hunters are shooting 150 or more deer a day, chasing big profits but courting incredible dangers.
Photo: Supplied by Paul Roy
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With low fuel prices and venison selling for a pound a pound, this is an absolute gold rush. Fortunes are being made and, in some cases, lost.
But the risks are also growing. These are inexperienced pilots in underpowered choppers, flying with a bare minimum of training, anywhere between five and 50 hours. Today a pilot would need between 200-300 hours minimum for this type of work.
Photo: Supplied by Paul Roy
The hunters learn their dangerous craft on the job and it’s a steep and sometimes deadly learning curve. Crashes, deaths and bad injuries are common and it’s the wives and families who bear the burden.
Follow Deer Wars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can hear it on Sunday mornings after 7am on RNZ National from Sunday 22 October.
Written and presented by Paul Roy.
Sound engineer - Alex Harmer.
Additional sound engineering - Jeremy Ansell and William Saunders.
Executive producers - Katy Gosset, Justin Gregory and Tim Watkin.
Deer Wars is made with the support of a Ngā Kōrero Tuku Iho, Piki Ake! Kake Ake! New Zealand Oral History Grant from Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage to Iguana Productions.
