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Hunting NZ

Game Animals

All the major game animals you can hunt in New Zealand. Click any species for a detailed guide.

What counts as a “game animal”? Under the Game Animals Act 1997, the term covers deer, Himalayan tahr, chamois, and wild pigs. Wild goats and wallaby are legally classed as pests rather than game animals — but they are still widely and legitimately hunted, so we cover them here too.

Pen sketch of a chamois head with slender hooked horns and dark facial stripes.

Chamois

Rupicapra rupicapra

Pen sketch of a fallow buck's head with wide, flattened palmate antlers.

Fallow Deer

Dama dama

Pen sketch of a red deer stag's head with long branching antlers.

Red Deer

Cervus elaphus scoticus

Pen sketch of a rusa stag with three points per antler and long, nearly parallel inner upper tines.

Rusa Deer

Cervus timorensis

Pen sketch of a sambar stag with heavy, pearled three-point antlers, longer outer tips and large rounded ears.

Sambar Deer

Cervus unicolor unicolor

Pen sketch of a sika stag with slender eight-point antlers, low brow tines, small high trez tines and forked tops.

Sika Deer

Cervus nippon

Pen sketch of a mature bull Himalayan tahr with broad-based, backward-sweeping horns and a full shaggy mane.

Himalayan Tahr

Hemitragus jemlahicus

Pen sketch of a Bennett's wallaby head with long upright ears and a dark nose.

Wallaby

Macropus rufogriseus, Notamacropus eugenii, Notamacropus parma

Pen sketch of a wapiti bull's head with sweeping antlers and a dark shaggy neck.

Wapiti (Elk)

Cervus canadensis nelsoni

Pen sketch of a white-tailed buck's head with forward-curving antlers and pale eye and muzzle markings.

White-tailed Deer

Odocoileus virginianus borealis

Pen sketch of a wild goat's head with long swept-back horns and a hanging beard.

Wild Goat

Capra hircus

Pen sketch of a wild boar's head with a broad snout, curved tusks and bristly neck.

Wild Pig

Sus scrofa