Hunting and Wildlife Magazine - Issue 228 - Autumn 2025
Words By: Robbie Kroger - The Origins Foundation
As he stripped large pieces of fatty bacon from the packet and laid them on the gas-powered griddle, he peered out of the mountain hut window and pointed with the spatula, “See that ridge? I killed a bull tahr on that ridge once,” said Snow, in that deep drawly New Zealand accent. As I watched him, you could see his blue eyes swinging along the ridge, almost reliving that moment, and wondering if it was going to happen again. He looked back, a twinkle in his eye, a crooked smirk, “Maybe we’ll have the same luck.”
Snow’s family arrived in New Zealand several generations ago as hunters. He is a hunter. He will tell you he probably spent more time hunting than he should have. When I asked him “Would you do it all the same again?”,his response is, “Yeah … probably would.” Snow lives and breathes tahr hunting. It’s in these mountains that look like Middle Earth from J.R.R. Tolkien's ‘Lord of the Rings’, that he finds himself. Snow is probably in his mid-sixties and absolutely took us all to town walking up and down these mountains. These mountains, this rarified air, and the tahr—a foreign visitor to these lands (Snow may argue so is he), are all deeply ingrained in his blood.
He pointed to the mountains surrounding us, “Take the red deer away, take the tahr away, what’s on this land today?” Nothing,” he said. “Nothing. Why not fill the landscape with tahr? If we manage them right, the ecosystem is not any worse for wear, and we get to experience these mountains; these areas. Who else would come here if there were no tahr? Only sheep farmers.” He thought deeply about that and continued, “Wouldn’t that be tragic? That we couldn’t introduce our mountains, our culture, our people, to the world through this incredible, dare I say, lion-goat of the mountains.”
Snow, shrugs on the backpack. There is a little hitch in his step these days. He isn’t as young as he once was. His hair colour matches his name now, and the creases around his eyes show that he’s seen more sunrises than most, but when you watch him, there is nowhere else he would rather be in this world. “I’ll fight to my dying breath to protect tahr,”he nodded, taking his hat off and rubbing some ache out of his neck. The gesture was a nod to the fight that he went through against those in his country who wanted to see them gone. “I’ll fight, and fight, and fight,” he nodded as he repositioned his hat.
“You boys ready to see why I love them so much?” Snow didn’t really wait for a response; he just started his steady march up into the steepest mountains we have ever hiked in. If you are interested in knowing what happened next: we got introduced, we got out-hiked, and we got outworked. After five hours of climbing, we had three hours of downhill.
Halfway back down, we all collapsed on the side of the mountain to put food in our bellies. Looking across the world, all we saw at eye level were huge peaks and deep valleys, and I can almost guarantee the others were asking themselves how we managed to meet such an incredible man, place, and beast. As we lay there, a faint waft of a deep perfume moved through us. The tahr’s skin that was rolled up in Snow’s backpack was permeating, and slowly infiltrating our clothing, backpacks, and memories.
“Don’t wash your jacket. When you are at home six months from now, pick up that jacket, bury your face into it, and take a deep breath in,” he gestured to what lay in front of us. “It will bring you right back to right here, right now,” he smiled and lifted his gaze to the sun and closed his eyes. You could almost see him reliving hundreds of moments in these mountains because of one special animal.
Blood Origins is a 501c3 public charity in the United States of America that has a singular mission: to convey the truth around hunting. We do this by creating content that conveys the benefits, impacts, and consequences of the activity of hunting and hunters to the non-hunting majority. If you are interested in learning more, or feel that you would like to support us, please visit us on our website www.bloodorigins.org
“Snow” film QR Code Link: https://youtu.be/EKUJeNVq3iE
“A difficult treasure” film QR Code Link: https://youtu.be/IANYgxf8fWs
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