Story: Acclimatisation

Hunted shags

Hunted shags

Taranaki photographer Robert Wells (right) and another man pose with black shags shot at Lake Rotoehu around 1940. For many decades acclimatisation societies and fishermen believed that trout populations were severely affected by predators such as shags, which they considered ‘vermin’. Societies paid bounties for dead birds and conducted raids on rookeries during the breeding season.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Robert E. Wells Collection (PAColl-0001)
Reference: 1/4-091512; F
Photograph by Zeila Aroha Gillman Wells

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page:

Carl Walrond, 'Acclimatisation - Changing roles of societies, 1890–1990', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/17472/hunted-shags (accessed 19 April 2024)

Story by Carl Walrond, published 24 Nov 2008