INTRODUCING THE NEW TAHR APP
Important - Data submitted to the app will be anonymous and personal information will be held in strictest confidence. We will not share the data or disclose any information that could identify you or any other individual who enters data on the app. Information you provide will be used by the Foundation to support improved management of tahr, and aggregated data will be used to:
- keep hunters up to date on management and overall hunter contributions to management
- advocate for improved access or more appropriate management objectives
- support the revision of the Himalayan Tahr Control Plan (HTCP)
- achieve Herd Of Special Interest (HOSI) status for tahr
- assist hunter education
- assist stakeholder coordination
Links to reports which your submissions contribute to will be shared with you by email.
NZTF may use photos posted to the app to help communicate aspects of tahr hunting in NZTF communications, reports, and media.
Photos submitted to the app in which there are identifiable people will not be used without permission from everyone in the photo.
Logged bulls harvested 8 years and older are eligible for entry into the Duke of Bedford Award, details coming soon.
Logged nannies harvested for meat (pic must display taking of meat from nanny) go into draw to win a meat processing prize.
All photos submitted are automatically included in an annual prize draw, details coming soon.
BACKGROUND
For too long recreational hunters’ contribution to tahr management has been a glossed-over add on to the Departments Tahr Control Operational Plan (TCOP).
Providing observations of tahr, tahr harvest and the state of the vegetation gives the Foundation the information it needs to manage the tahr population to support hunting. We can work towards improving access, trophy potential and apply management to minimise official control and wastage. Observations of vegetation through time can show where we need to focus hunter management efforts and where hunter efforts are making a difference. We can tell a story of hunter management and success in the years to come.
The Himalayan Tahr Control Plan 1993 specifies populations far below what the Foundation considers a huntable population of tahr, but we need your help to prove it. If we know what hunters take now, we can run models to show what we need to support a huntable population, even down to a regional scale. We can’t change the HTCP until we have a process that is better than what is currently in place.
If all hunters use this tool to report in the tahr range, we will collectively eclipse all other forms of monitoring. It’s hard to argue against hunting if it is the biggest contributor to conservation in the area.It’s hard to argue about having a huntable resource if you need hunters to support conservation initiatives and sustainable tahr management.
But we need a facility to make hunter harvest and hunter observations valuable and count... enter the Tahr App.
