Prickly pest placed on council hit list
Snuffly, sparky-eyed and an egg-eating, cold-blooded killer: meet the hedgehog.
The prickly pests are the stand-out inclusion on a hit list of 26 unwanted plants and animals targeted by Greater Wellington Regional Council.
About $6 million a year will be spent on controlling, excluding and eradicating 15 plants and 11 animals, according to its proposed Regional Pest Management Plan, which sets the agenda for the next 20 years.
While the usual enemies – possums, rats and rabbits – feature, it was the first time hedgehogs had been singled out, the council’s biosecurity manager Davor Bejakovich said. ‘‘We only discovered in the past 10 years how hedgehogs were serious and significant predators to shorebirds, like dotterels.’’
Wellington residents were mainly supportive of pest-eradication programmes, particularly as the region had begun to reap the rewards, but one area of contention was cat control, Bejakovich said.
The plan suggested council spend up to $85,000 a year to control pest cats but highlighted the proposal as risky, because of likely strong opposition from the public. Pest cats were classified as those not microchipped in an area where microchipping was compulsory; unowned and unsocialised; and with little or no relationship with, or dependence on, humans.
Of the animals, only rooks – a black bird the size of a magpie – were listed for eradication. A danger to farming and horticulture, ridding the region of the birds would cost council $108,000 a year.
Magpies would be managed under an annual $65,000 ‘‘sustained control’’ programme, rabbits would cost $216,000 a year and possums $2,415,000. Goats cost $121,500 a year to control and a combined yearly total of $1,469,665 covered mustelids.
The 20-year plan is out for consultation until July 27.