Hunting, which includes big game, pig, duck and alpine hunting, remains a popular activity. However, overall hunting participation has been steadily decreasing over the last 10 years. Nowadays, approximately 4% of the NZ adult population goes hunting at least once per year. Despite a slow annual decline in participation, hunters are an active community and typically go out hunting multiple times per year.
We don’t believe the COVID-19 pandemic had the same impact on international visitor recreational hunting (excluding guided hunting) as it did with tramping, as the size of this group is believed to be a lot smaller. However, like tramping, hunters in NZ were significantly impacted through the pandemic. While there was only a very small increase in overall hunting participation through this period, it’s likely the frequency of hunting trips increased, especially in rural communities or where hunters had easy access to suitable hunting land.
Hunting Fatalities
Fatality data indicates that hunting fatalities have been trending down over the last 15 years, although these can fluctuate year to year. The 5-year average is now 1.4 fatalities per year, and the 10-year average is now 1.8 per year.
Hunting Search and Rescue
The 10-year trend for search and rescues involving hunters is steadily declining. The 5-year average is now 65.2 per year and the 10-year average is 71.2.
While hunting participation is slowly decreasing, many hunters are regularly active, and we believe hunt more frequently than most trampers go tramping.
Using participation rates and actual SAR counts, we can see that the rate of hunters requiring search and rescues per 10,000 participants is relatively stable.
From 2020-2021 onwards, we have included NZ ambulance data from Hato Hone St John, adding a type of ‘rescue’ event not included in previous data. This will have a slight impact on the data and trend.
Note: The data collection system changed in 2018-2019 and this may have resulted in some underreporting for this specific year.
Hunting Severe Injuries
Severe hunting injuries as a percentage of all injuries shows a steady increase over time.
Our #ROARfit hunting campaign aims specifically to reduce severe hunting injuries during the annual Roar, when thousands of hunters hit the hills in search of their dream stag.
Furthermore, the trend of severe hunting injuries per 10,000 participants is also increasing over time.