Building a better magpie trap

Forest and Bird, Issue 295, 1 February 2000, Page 10

Building a better magpie trap

orest and Bird councillor, i Neale Blaymires of Te Puke, took a look at an overseas-developed magpie trap and determined to build a better one. Responding to the received commercial wisdom of ‘building a better mousetrap’ he now has a business in making steel cages which painlessly capture the birds. So far he’s sold more than 450 traps. The effect of introduced Australian magpies on populations of New Zealand and other birds has been widely reported since the pioneer advocacy of the late Jacquie Barrington, a regional field officer in the north for Forest and Bird. Several local bodies have since looked at declaring the birds a regional pest, and there has been growing interest among landowners to getting rid of magpies from their properties. Shooting is difficult — the birds are hard to kill and quickly become gun-shy. By contrast, using a magpie trap can be quickly effective. Beginning last spring, Neale placed one of his traps in a neighbour’s paddock and caught 198 magpies in three months. The effect of that many birds on the local populations of other species must have been immense, as a close watch on any hunting magpies reveals their preying on other species, taking mature birds, their eggs and chicks, and destroying nests. Being strongly territorial magpies also drive off other birds, including the white-faced heron for which they may compete for a nest site in tall pines. They often pursue such nor-

mally aggressive birds as tui, and attack cruising harrier hawks. Occasionally people are attacked should they come too close to a nest or young. The traps developed by Neale Blaymires are double-ended, unlike the large, four-cham-bered one which led him to experiment with something simpler. Both ends of the dou-ble-cage trap are opened and a trail of mutton-fat or other suitable food leads the magpie inside. When a magpie takes the final bait, it stands on a steel plate which springs the door shut behind it. Any other curious bird coming to check the first prisoner is likely to wander into the adjacent chamber and also get caught. Magpies can also be lured down to the trap with a tame magpie housed in a separate cage, such as an old possum cage trap. (Another form of lure is a tape recording of distress calls produced by Waikato Fish and Game but Neale hasn’t tried this and wonders if associating distress calls with the trap might cause trap shyness). Traps are usually set where magpies come down to feed. In a paddock the grass should be short where the bait is laid. The only down-side appears to be the need to pick up the live bird from the trap and wring its neck. The instruction booklet explains how. Enquiries can be made of Neale Blaymires at 346 Upper Papamoa Road, RD3, Te Puke, telephone (07) 573-4157. Waikato Fish and Game is at RD9, Hamilton, telephone (07) 849-1666.