Miramar Peninsula’s predator target set
Predator Free Wellington wants to eradicate all pests from Miramar Peninsula this year – a world first for a sprawling urban area.
Miramar residents will be doorknocked and thousands of traps set on private property.
Predator Free Wellington project director James Willcocks said it won’t be easy, and it was likely to be one of the most complex rat and mustelid eradications ever.
‘‘This scale of eradication, with the complexity of people, has never been done before.’’
Islands and bushland have been made predator free, but they usually had just hundreds of residents – Miramar has about 19,500 residents.
‘‘This is a capital city, this is a place where people work, play, live everyday, so there’s those things to take into consideration,’’ Willcocks said.
Residents can expect to see three new community liaison officers going door-todoor.
Willcocks said there may be some opposition to the goal.
However, if a resident had a trap set on their property and were too squeamish to check for catches, an officer would take charge.
‘‘We’ll have teams going out there. ‘‘The aim is to have a trap checked every week,’’ Willcocks said.
In the final days, they would use sniffer dogs to hunt out any last predators.
Timeline
– Predator Free Wellington team speaks to the community, seeking permission to have traps and bait stations on private property
– Traps and bait stations placed – Start of operation, weekly bait station and trap checks
– Target to have trapped every last rat, stoat and weasel. Monitoring of native wildlife
January-June
June July
December
About 2500 new traps will be set, in addition to the 1000 traps already operating. Double-set Doc-series 200 traps would be set in a long box to stop domestic animals being able to get inside.
Infrastructure would be ready in June with traps set live in July, he said.
‘‘Community trapping efforts are going to be super important at this time.
‘‘We’re keen for people to just keep doing what they’re doing, or get involved.’’
The eradication method planned is similar to when possums were eradicated from the peninsula in 2006.
Research and development entity ZIP (Zero Invasive Predators) was working to build a virtual barrier by the airport to stop rats, possums and mustelids getting back onto the peninsula, Willcocks said.
‘‘Once we secure the peninsula, we want to make sure nothing comes back over. If it does, we want to be able to pick it up really quickly.’’
Predator Free Wellington is funded by Wellington City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council, the NEXT Foundation and Predator Free 2050 Ltd.