Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands REINDEER ERADICATION PROJECT – PHASE 1 SUMMARY REPORT 1. Introduction South Georgia today is a wildlife haven but has a history of exploitation. The Government of South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands (GSGSSI) is committed to safeguarding and restoring the native species, habitats and landscape features of the Island. The principles of environmental protection and sustainable ecosystem management are enshrined within its laws and policies, which include measures to protect against invasive and non-native species that threaten the natural environment. Reindeer were introduced by Norwegian whalers in order to provide a familiar food source and to vary an otherwise fairly limited diet. The reindeer were also a reminder of home, and hunting them provided a recreational activity. Reindeer were introduced to two discreet areas of South Georgia on three occasions between 1909 and 1925. Combined, the areas occupied by reindeer equate to the largest ice free part of the Island, and consequently support a diverse flora. Reindeer are having a detrimental impact on South Georgia’s native flora through trampling and overgrazing of indigenous plants, particularly coastal tussac, leading to soil erosion and increased distribution of more resistant, invasive plants. In places, this has changed the structure of the vegetation and soils to the extent that native seabirds can no longer nest there. Following stakeholder consultation, in 2010 GSGSSI made the decision to remove reindeer from the Island. Following the recommendations of an advisory group on reindeer management methodology, the decision was taken to investigate the possibility of using a combination of herding and ground shooting to eradicate reindeer from South Georgia. These two methods were thought to provide the best balance between the need to eradicate the reindeer in an efficient and humane manner, to remove the bulk of carcasses and to allow recovery of commercially viable products. The eradication was carried out in association with the Norwegian Nature Inspectorate (SNO) who have considerable experience in reindeer management. As herding and corralling was an untested eradication method, to assess the feasibility on South Georgia, a reconnaissance trip was conducted between 1st and 31st January 2012. During the reconnaissance two members of SNO and one GSGSSI staff visited both of the areas with reindeer and concluded that it would be feasible to herd the majority of reindeer into a central corral where they could be slaughtered and butchered under veterinary supervision. Trained marksmen would shoot reindeer occupying inaccessible outlying areas. 1 In January and February 2013, the first phase of the eradication was completed, with just over 1,900 reindeer being eradicated from the Busen area (Figure 1); one of the two peninsulas which are occupied by the reindeer. The eradication of the second herd, on the Barff Peninsula, is planned for early 2014. Figure 1. The Busen area This report gives an overview of operations in the Busen area and highlights the main lessons learned that will inform the planning of phase 2 of operations. 2. Overview of field operations The eradication team consisted of ten Sami reindeer herders, four marksmen, four science assistants, a vet, a doctor and two project management staff. The field team arrived on South Georgia in two waves. The first group, which consisted of the project management staff, two marksmen, a doctor, two science support workers and four herders arrived on South Georgia in early January 2013. A second group, consisting of the remaining six herders, two marksman and two science assistants arrived in mid-January. Once they had arrived on South Georgia and completed safety briefings and a general orientation, the first group were tasked with offloading cargo and 2 constructing the fencing in the corral area. The bulk of materials needed for the fence construction in the corral area were offloaded from the Pharos SG using a seatruck over the course of two days (Figure 2). Figure 2. Offloading rolls of fencing from the seatruck. Photo CE Kilander. Once the fencing material was offloaded, the first team of marksmen were deployed to begin shooting in outlying areas (see below) and the remaining staff began work constructing the fences. The majority of the fencing work was completed within a week. The fence building in the main corral area went smoothly with soft ground making putting in the posts relatively easy (Figure 3). Moving the rolls of fencing material around the site was challenging if quad-bike access was not possible (Figure 4). In areas where quad-bike access was available a custom-made fence rolling/unrolling device was used which saved some time (Figure 5). Elsewhere fence rolls were unrolled by hand. 3 Figure 3. Inserting the posts in the main corral area. Photo CE Kilander. Figure 4. Unrolling wire mesh by hand up a steep hill. Photo CE Kilander. 4 Figure 5. Unrolling wire mesh with the aid of a quad bike and trailer. Photo AM Wilson. Temporary fences were constructed to the east of the Olsen Valley, to the north of Husvik and between Tønsberg and Stromness (Figure 6). These fences were typically less substantial and contained large ‘gates’ that would allow reindeer to pass though during herding. Construction of these fences was almost exclusively by hand and in some cases required posts to be carried several hundred metres up scree slopes. Figure 6. Temporary to the east of the Olsen Valley. Photo CE Kilander. 5 Herding operations Large numbers of people were required to move deer across some of the more open passes in the Busen area, therefore the main herding operation could only commence once the second group of herders had arrived. Herding was completed over a period of approximately two weeks (Figure 7). The reindeer on South Georgia are not accustomed to humans and at times were quite skittish. This meant that in places, several attempts were needed to move reindeer from one valley to the next. Herding was primarily the responsibility of the Sami herders but when science assistants were not engaged in other work, they helped. The Sami had a good understanding of reindeer behaviour and the science assistants typically were physically fit and had good local knowledge. Co-incidentally, many of the science assistants had experience gathering animals such as sheep, cattle and deer elsewhere. Typically there were between 6 and 16 personnel involved in the herding operation at any one time. Figure 7. Reindeer being herded from Husvik. Photo S Crimmin. 6 Approximate numbers of animals herded from each area are as follows: Leith Harbour 200 Stromness 60 Fortuna east*† 200 Jason Harbour 200 Carlita/Olsen Valley 200 Husvik Harbour† 250 *A decision was made not to herd reindeer from the west side of Fortuna Bay as this would entail crossing a substantial river, which was considerably higher than it had been in the previous year and would present a hazard to both reindeer and people. † 100 animals from Fortuna and 100 animals from Husvik were herded but escaped from the corral area before they could be slaughtered. Although there was some success in bringing animals over from Jason Harbour, Leith and the Olsen Valley moving animals over from Fortuna Bay and Framnaes Point proved to be problematic. In part this may have been because of the slightly unpredictable behavior of the reindeer but a contributory factor may also have been of the very physical nature of the work that was beyond the fitness levels of many of the herders. In the Olsen Valley and Husvik area quad-bikes were used to assist in the herding of animals. While the quad-bikes were useful in very open areas in many cases, reindeer reacted badly to their presence and this undoubtedly increased the stress of the herding operations considerably. Quad-bikes also caused damage to vegetation that may take several years to recover. Overall, while it is clear that a herding technique can gather a large number of animals into a corral, it is only appropriate to use over relatively short distances and where the terrain is simple (i.e. few ‘pinch’ points such as passes or steep scree slopes). Slaughter and butchering Once reindeer had been gathered into the central corral area near Tønsberg Point groups of approximately 100 were moved into a race and inner corral, from where animals were fed into a catching pen in groups of approximately 40 animals. Individual animals were then stunned with a captive bolt gun and bled, the carcasses were loaded onto the sea truck and taken on board a processing vessel (Figure 8). Depending on the weight of the carcass between 15 and 20 animals could be 7 transported by the seatruck at any one time. A complete turn around of the seatruck (loading carcasses on shore, offload on processing vessel and return to shore) would take in the region of 30-40 minutes. Limited space on the processing vessel restricted the maximum number of reindeer slaughtered in any one day to 150 animals. On the whole, the slaughter went well and apart from days when weather prevented the seatruck from operating, the shore side team were able to supply the processing vessel with the maximum number of carcasses they were able to handle each day. Figure 8. Reindeer carcasses being loaded on board the seatruck. Photo CE Kilander. Once slaughtered animals were brought on board the processing vessel they were de-hided, eviscerated and left to hang on the trawl deck until they had reached ambient temperature (Figure 9). At this point they were lowered into a chilled hold with an ambient temperature of between5 and 9˚C. Depending on the age of the animal, carcasses were hung between 1 and 4 days to tenderise.