Norwegian authorities say they cannot prosecute five tourists videoed slaughtering protected native kereru in New Zealand and are not looking at criminal charges.
But the Department of Conservation (DOC) says there are other laws that could see charges brought against the five men, who posted a clip on YouTube last month of them shooting a wide range of New Zealand wildlife over five weeks during summer.
The clip showed a hunter shooting at a kereru, the bird falling from a tree and one of the tourists holding two dead, bloody birds. The video also showed the tourists shooting a paradise shelduck with a rifle, well outside the duck hunting season.
The five men, who have since returned to Norway, have all been identified.
A prosecutor for the Norwegian authority Okokrim, Aud Slettemoen, told NZPA that illegal hunting abroad could only be prosecuted in Norway under Norwegian law where the hunt had diminished a species that was threatened by extinction.
"We understand that the kereru is not listed as threatened by extinction in the international red list," she said, referring to International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources list of threatened species.
"Furthermore, on the basis of the information we have, it would not seem that the hunt was so extensive that it would have 'diminished' the species."
Therefore, the matter could not be prosecuted in Norway, and we have not opened a criminal investigation in the case, she said.
DOC spokesman Rory Newsam said it had always accepted it would be difficult to prosecute the men in Norway.
It was unlikely that DOC would seek to have five men extradited, even if the two countries had extradition legislation, just for the shooting of a kereru.
However, Norwegian authorities were keen to see the results of DOC's report into the case and there could be an avenue to prosecute the men through weapons legislation and the way the group's guns may have been imported, he said.
The report, prepared by DOC's national compliance team, was scheduled to land on Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson's desk this week, and to also go to Norwegian authorities with a number of recommendations.
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