Local pest control efforts
Here are just a few examples of pest control that is already happening on the Peninsula!
Tairoa head
At Taiaroa Head from 1992 to 2008, rangers have trapped and shot 219 stoats, 26 ferrets, 86 cats and numerous hedgehogs, ship rats and possums.
A Broad Bay resident has been trapping magpies for the past 12 years and has caught 120. The Australian magpie is aggressive and feeds on lizards, mice, nestlings, small birds and insects, as well as berries and carrion.
A Highcliff Rd property owner realised that possums were damaging the native bush. The property has 2 remnants of bush, with a total area of 3ha. In Oct 2008 a pest contractor stapled small bags containing a poison bait to trees on the perimeter of the bush. A total of 53 possums were picked up from this operation.
Victory beach, Okia reserve.
The Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust and Dunedin City Council Task Force Green trap for stoats, ferrets and feral cats in the Okia Reserve to protect penguin chicks.
From 2003 to 2007, 19 stoats, 35 ferrets and 21 cats were caught.
The DCC also undertakes trapping at Otekiho little blue penguin habitat and around Papanui and Hoopers inlets to protect other native birds.
The owners of a QEII native bush covenant in Broad Bay have noticed a great increase in birds since they began controlling ship rats in 2005. Ship rats are agile climbers and eat birds’ eggs and nestlings as well as competing with birds for flowers and berries.
Storm Secure anticoagulant baits are wired into plastic bait stations placed in trees. These are kept full all year, with the bait take reducing from 9kg in the first year to around 3kg per year.
Fuchsia excorticata flowers
As a result of the rat poisoning, tui and bellbird are fledging chicks and there has been a big increase in grey warblers and fantails. The vegetation has improved too. Prior to the poisoning the fuchsia trees didn’t produce berries because the rats were eating the flowers.