Local pest eradication program

[Ianab]

Article in today's news about how a project to eradicate introduced predators around the province is going.  Main idea is to wipe out Australian possums and stoats in the National Park around the Mt, and put a big dent in the rats too. 

Winning the war on predators on Taranaki Maunga | Stuff.co.nz

So far they have got kiwi reestablished in the initial control area in the Kaitake hills Nth of the main park, and around the township of Oakura. There were kiwi living there when I was a kid, and you could hear them calling from home on a calm night. But there was also a plague of possums, so bad that Dad and his neighbours would go out at night just bombing them with spotlights and .22s, because they were eating so much pasture. I know Dad went through several slabs of .22 ammo, and he was a good shot, so close to one possum per bullet, over 1,000 just on our 500 acres. That would have been in the 70s, and the kiwi died out after that. Adult birds can fight off a stoat or cat, but new hatched chicks are smaller and vulnerable. So when they lay one egg a year, and 95% of the chicks get killed, their days are numbered. Remove the predators and their numbers soon bounce back as 95% of the chicks do survive, and the birds live for ~20 years. The local fenced reserve now has so many they are re-homing them to other reserves and predator controlled areas. 


The picture of the Mt in the article shows our old farm as the green pasture in front of the Mt.

But main thing that's making it work is the ~18,000 traps deployed by individuals in the program. Aim is then to create a "moat" around the National Park and try and make it like the predator free offshore Islands. Getting all the pests out of the park itself is going to be difficult, just the terrain and size of the area, but not impossible. They are down to only a handful of possums in the Kaitake hills, and their days are probably numbered. 

Ambitious plan is to spread this out over all of NZ by 2050, which will be a huge undertaking. But you have to start some place. 

[KEC]

I'm rooting for the Kiwis.

[peakbagger]

When I did the Milford Track years ago the guides all had their stoat traps, whomever caught the most over a season got a bounty of some sort. 

Of course there is also an issue with feral cats but a lot harder to eradicate them ;)

[Ianab]

Feral cats are a bit of problem, but more around the suburbs and farms. They don't seem to venture into the native forest that much. Seem to prefer the more open areas. not the damp cold rain forest. 

This is at Rotokare reserve today. It's a fenced predator free reserve created by local residents. It's ~568 acres, with a small lake as well. So wetlands, some swampy forest with big old kahikatea trees, and drier ground up the hills. It's fenced and trapped so they have even got mice wiped out in there. 




You can see how lush the forest is in the background here, this is middle of Winter too.
 

 
Walk around the lake is pretty easy, kids are still smiling around the 1/2 way point.



Another viewing spot.
 


And back at the carpark / visitor centre. 
 

 
Lil practising her wildlife photography. Fantail (piwakawaka) are friendly, but hyperactive and hard to photograph. They seldom sit still. 


 
Meanwhile I'm sitting in the car, and a NZ Robin (toutouwai) just comes to visit. They are very "tame" and trusting, and being a ground feeder they a very vlunerable to predators. So common in predator controlled areas, rare anywhere else. 


 
Exiting the reserve, the gate system is interlocked so only one of the gates can be open at any time.


 

This is another bird that has been released in the reserve. It's a threatened species and only naturally surviving on one small Island up North. But some have been moved to other reserves and Islands, and is being closely monitored and looked after to encourage more breeding. (Extra food stations and nest boxes etc) 
Stitchbird/hihi: New Zealand native land birds
They are a lot shyer though, and not as plentiful as the more common birds. 

The long term plan is to get the whole National Park looking more like the fenced reserves.