A small group of American wapiti, known in the United States as elk, was sent to New Zealand as a gift from President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905. The animals were released in Fiordland, where their descendants eventually established one of the world's unusual free-ranging wapiti populations outside the species' native North American range. The Department of Conservation says the Fiordland herd now largely comprises wapiti-red deer hybrids. That fact sits at the center of a long-running management question: how should an introduced herd valued by hunters be maintained inside one of New Zealand's largest national parks while protecting native ecosystems?
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