Trappers seek ideas, innovations
Wildlife biologist Cam Speedy uses the one-third method when setting bait for his traps.
One-third of the bait goes in the actual trap, a third of the food goes around the trap as a ‘‘free giveaway’’, while the last third goes out in the surrounding area, to draw the pests in.
With more than 40 years of experience in predator control, the biologist said it was vital trappers were adaptable and changed up their techniques.
This week, Speedy alongside Predator Free NZ will be appearing in Picton, Nelson and Ma¯pua to help locals who want to take the plunge into backyard or community trapping.
Speedy said that in the six years since Predator Free NZ’s inception, he had seen people around the country throw themselves into predator control in an attempt to reach the goal of being predator-free by 2050 – a ‘‘ballsy moonshot’’.
New ideas and innovations would be needed to make the target. In the meantime, people working in environmental sciences and trapping would focus on suppressing predators to a level where the country could still have ka¯ka¯, kiwi and ka¯ka¯riki, which had been devastated by predators.
Sharing skills and knowledge was important in pest control, Speedy said.
‘‘We have got this philosophy that there is no IP [intellectual property] in Predator Free, we are all in this together. And we all need the knowledge.’’
Pests could be incredibly adaptive, changing their behaviour often to get around traps, so it was important that trappers were flexible and could change their mode of attack.
‘‘If we keep doing what we have always done, our tools are going to get blunter and blunter and pests are going to beat us.’’
People involved in trapping should have a good knowledge of their trapping areas, as well as knowing the pests’ main food supply and what their movements were.
In New Zealand, mustelids such as ferrets, stoats and possums were the key animals people were targeting through trapping, as they had the most impact on our ecosystem and our threatened species.
Speedy said he imagined controlling the rats and mice population was an important aspect of predator management in the Tasman district.
The Tasman area was known for its ‘‘beautiful beech forests’’. These forests would seed heavily, which was perfect for thriving populations of rats and mice.
Predators in New Zealand often started to breed very rapidly when they were suppressed. There was so much food in New Zealand’s environment, so when their population dipped they often ‘‘pushed back’’ and started breeding faster.
Predator Free New Zealand Trust chief executive Jessi Morgan said the events this week were co-hosted with the Tasman Environmental Trust.
They were aimed at helping people who had done a bit of trapping before to take things ‘‘to the next level’’.
‘‘When you are spending your weekends and your time, volunteering for this activity, we want to make sure that you are having the biggest impact that you can.
‘‘So it is all about making your trapping as effective as it can be.’’
There was a huge amount of activity taking place around the country in regard to trapping. In Picton, the Picton Dawn Chorus is leading the charge, getting traps into people’s gardens. In the Tasman district, conservation group Friends of Flora completed 12,000 hectares of trapping across Kahurangi National Park, and in Golden Bay there were visions to make Farewell Spit completely predator free.
‘‘So there is a bunch of work happening up around there to really get predator numbers to zero in that area.’’
Morgan said that from a native species and biodiversity point of view the Tasman district was incredibly important. She used Abel Tasman National Park’s Project Janszoon as an example.
‘‘They have done a phenomenal job of returning bird life to the Abel Tasman.’’