Mobile stoats

Forest and Bird, Issue 266, 1 November 1992, Page 5

Mobile stoats

Source: Rare Bits (Department of Conservation)

A STUDY of the behaviour and ecology of stoats in Fiordland has considerable implications for the control of these pests and the protection of endangered wildlife. Elaine Murphy from DoC’s Science and Research Division and John Dowding used radiotracking equipment to follow the movement of stoats in the beech forests of the Eglinton Valley. The study covered a stoat plague year (as occurs following a beech seeding year) with a follow up in 1991-92 when

stoat densities were lower. The stoats were well-trav-elled. One young female was found 65 kilometres away after only a month, and the stoats regularly moved over two kilometres in only two to three hours often, to the inconvenience of the researchers, crossing the Eglinton river in their foraging. Much to the surprise of Murphy and Dowding, stoats were also found in comparatively high numbers in the year following the plague year, although with an older age structure. Another finding was that the

trapping of stoats was only effective for the duration of the trapping. The interval before stoats recolonised a cleared area was very short even in a nonplague year. This has considerable implications for the management of sensitive localities containing endangered species such as Maud Island which is within stoat-swimming distance of the mainland. These localities are at risk not only in plague years, when many juvenile stoats are dispersing, but also at other times.