Boaties' pets a risk to native wildlife
Boaties bringing dogs and cats onto pest-free islands are putting a major nature restoration project at risk, a Northland conservationist says.
DoC and conservation groups are alarmed by reports of people bringing their pets onto the Ipipiri islands, in the eastern Bay of Islands, which have been pest-free since 2009 and are home to many rare species.
Urupukapuka and Moturua islands are particularly popular with visitors but are also teeming with native birds, reptiles and insects.
Pets aren’t regarded as pests, but are barred from the islands because of the risks they pose to wildlife.
Project Island Song coordinator Richard Robbins put the increase in dogs and cats down to more boaties travelling to the bay because of the closed borders.
“A huge amount of work has gone into these islands. We want people to visit and enjoy them, but pet owners may not understand the consequences of bringing dogs and cats, even if they see them as being under control.”
It also posed a risk to the future of the project, he said.
“If it’s perceived that we have a problem with dogs and cats coming ashore there are certain species we just won’t be able to reintroduce, like tuatara and takahe.”
DoC ranger Helen Ough Dealy said she was increasingly receiving reports of dogs being taken ashore, and even cats being walked on beaches or taken on paddleboards.
“These islands are refuges, they are arks, for extremely rare species which have been re-introduced by community groups with a huge amount of dedication. They are trying to save these species from the brink of extinction.”
Even the most domesticated pet had a propensity to chase, or kill, native wildlife. Dogs could frighten shorebirds such as dotterel away from their nests, exposing the eggs to heat or cold.
The latest species to be reintroduced, the we¯ta¯punga or giant we¯ta¯, came down to the ground at night to feed, making it easy prey for cats. Native skinks and geckos were also easy pickings.
Signs explaining the rules had been put up on every island, wharf and boat ramp on the mainland.
In 2017, a Burmese cat vanished from a boat moored off Moturua Island and was only caught three weeks later.
In 2002, after boaties took five ferrets for a walk on Great Barrier Island, a nationwide ban was imposed on keeping ferrets as pets.