Can New Zealand Really Be Predator Free?

[Dave Homewood]

There's been a lot of articles in the press this week since the Government announced their admirable plan to wipe out rats, stoats, ferrets, weasels and possums by the year 2050. The experiments done up till now where sections of forest have been fenced and then had all the pests within eradicated have proven a huge success. Mount Maungatautari here in Cambridge is a fine example, the bird life both on the mountain within the fenced area and in the surrounding district has boomed. We now have types in our skies here in town that I'd not seen here before, bellbirds and falcons, etc. And the tuis have multiplied like blackbirds. It's brilliant.

However, once these pests are wiped out, how are we going to stop more rats arriving on ships? Is there a way to successfully keep them out? Will the ports have to be fenced in the same way as the sanctuaries are now, with very high security exit points?

[corsair5517]

NZ will never, ever be predator free, in my opinion. How do you fence Fiordland? Or the West Coast? Or North Canterbury? I've seen mustelid sign all over the place there along with rat shit - and enormous feral cats - and the weasels are a bloody sight harder to eradicate than rats!!

Fenced enclosures like Orakanui in Otago, Mount Bruce in the Wairarapa and Aucklands Ark in the Park are the best hope for most bush species but the wading and shore birds are in dire straits, and that's down to people, cats and dogs.

I've been lucky enough to spend time on Tirirtiri Matangi and at Miranda which was absolutely magical, and leaves you with a heavy heart for what might have been. To see and hear kokako in the wild truly sends shivers down the spine....

[Dave Homewood]

I saw a Kokako in the wild last time I was up Maungatautari,and it was outside the pest free enclosure, beside the carpark, which was awesome.

[The Red Baron]

Possums would be impossible,there are billions of them.

[noooby]

If you want NZ to be totally pest free, then all the people have to go too!

[htbrst]

Jul 31, 2016 22:43:33 GMT 12 corsair5517 said:

NZ will never, ever be predator free, in my opinion. How do you fence Fiordland? Or the West Coast? Or North Canterbury? I've seen mustelid sign all over the place there along with rat shit - and enormous feral cats - and the weasels are a bloody sight harder to eradicate than rats!!

Fenced enclosures like Orakanui in Otago, Mount Bruce in the Wairarapa and Aucklands Ark in the Park are the best hope for most bush species but the wading and shore birds are in dire straits, and that's down to people, cats and dogs.

Mount Bruce isn't fenced at all, they have a pest management plan using a series traps and bait stations that has been expanding outwards. The interim plan to 2025 is to demonstrate that a further 20,000 hectares around the country could be or are protected without fences - Mount Bruce is ~ 1000 hectares.

I think its worth a crack, trapping effectiveness with new technology has improved several orders of magnitude even in the last 10 years - with a good aimed focus and tech improvements over the next 30 I don't think its completely beyond the realm of possibility to achieve. Even if it doesn't quite get there, giving predators a good knock back should dramatically improve birdlife

[Ian Warren]

Aug 1, 2016 7:48:07 GMT 12 noooby said:

If you want NZ to be totally pest free, then all the people have to go too!

YIP , brought 100 convicts in from Christmas Island, one was already doing his criminal activity's within ten days, caught in Hamilton and within a month it soared up to just over forty per cent.

I like my animals, don't have space or backyard for a Dog, but I prefer Cats anyway, I simply slid 'Mars' between my computers, thing is Gareth Morgan considers them 'Cats' as pests.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

[Dave Homewood]

I loved the comment on 7 Days, if the Government eradicate predators that will spell the end to Rugby League.

[corsair5517]

Aug 1, 2016 8:21:59 GMT 12 htbrst said:

Mount Bruce isn't fenced at all, they have a pest management plan using a series traps and bait stations that has been expanding outwards. The interim plan to 2025 is to demonstrate that a further 20,000 hectares around the country could be or are protected without fences - Mount Bruce is ~ 1000 hectares.

I think its worth a crack, trapping effectiveness with new technology has improved several orders of magnitude even in the last 10 years - with a good aimed focus and tech improvements over the next 30 I don't think its completely beyond the realm of possibility to achieve. Even if it doesn't quite get there, giving predators a good knock back should dramatically improve birdlife

That's great!! And refreshing to hear that a difference is being made!! However, my point stands; as long as you have one breeding female in an inaccessible area, you've got a problem! And predators aren't the only problem - aggressive herbivores like opossums and mice, swarming insects like the German Wasps in the beech forests and the wandering rootings of pigs encroach on the feeding patterns and habitat for the natives making life unsustainable.

Fiordland is not the Wairarapa - I hunted in there for years and it is tiger country - and I believe there will always be an exotic predator population in NZ in areas like Fiordland. I spent a little time in the Uraweras, too; hard country again and not condusive to trying to keep predators at bay, but gee; it's good to hear of someone giving it a decent nudge!!

You know, at one time in NZ- or so I was told! - there was an increasing German wasp problem so the government of the day put a bounty on queens: small boys of all ages soon ensured that the wasp problem was well and truly countered, at least in esay to reach areas!! Wasps are the only thing in the NZ bush that truly frighten me and a decent honeydew season sees a spike in their numbers....