Return of the Rat Trap

Forest and Bird, Issue 297, 1 August 2000, Page 5

Return of the Rat Trap

and

DoC, Opotiki.

—Source: Pete Shaw

Lindsay Wilson,

rapping rather than poisons has proved successful in pest control work in the Northern Te Urewera Ecosystem Restoration Project, according to its managers, Pete Shaw and Lindsay Wilson of the Department of Conservation. The success of their work is significant because of concerns about the use of brodifacoum baits, till now the only effective form of rat control where native birds and plants are at risk.

The northern Te Urewera project began in 1995 and aims to restore 50,000 hectares of Te Urewera National Park. Possum control, rotating through the northern Te Urewera has reduced possum numbers to less than five percent over this area. However, reduced possum numbers on their own are not enough to allow sensitive native species such as kokako, kereru and kaka to recover. To aid in their recovery an

innovative system has established several ‘core breeding areas. Essentially this system involves identifying key habitat where remnants of threatened species still exist. Then, other threats such as rats and stoats are also reduced. The Onepu core breeding area encompasses 200 hectares, where snap traps baited with peanut butter are now in use. On the first night of the trial 750 rats were caught. Traplines

were maintained throughout the summer. Rat trapping proved an effective method for reducing rat numbers to a level where threatened birds could breed successfully. Subsequently, seven of 11 kokako pairs at Onepu attempted to breed and four were successful.