Latest News
Post
Drop Safety Recommendations
(Link within this page)
MEIT Question
and Answer Sheet
(PDF)
Pest
Eradication Workshop Notes April 04
(PDF)
Gantt
Chart attachment to Pest Eradication Workshop
Notes
(PDF)
Backgound
Latest News
The pest eradication operation on Maungatautari is proceeding according to expectations. Remnant populations of four pest species - rabbits, hares, goats and mice are all that remain. Hunters have been employed to eliminate the rabbits, hares and goats. MEIT staff have already eliminated mice from several areas inside the fence and are continuing to work their way around the places where mice have been detected.
Post drop safety recommendations
-
Do not handle any
bait.
-
Children or dogs
should not be allowed to wander
unsupervised within or near the fenced
area.
-
Please keep to the
tracks.
-
The operational
area will be permanently closed to the
hunting of pigs and deer for human
consumption following the first bait
application.
-
Do not take pigs for
eating from forested areas adjoining the
operational area as some pests with
toxin residue may leave the fenced area
and be scavenged.
For more information on operational details
please contact Epro Pest Eradication Project
Manager Cam Speedy on 07 378 4852.
Background
|
This photo shows a dead rat which
was trapped in the northern
enclosure two days after it left
prints on these tracking cards. |
|
In July and August 2004
Trust staff and volunteers cut gridlines and monitoring tunnels in the two enclosures in preparation for the pest monitoring operation. A total of 793 tunnels were laid across the two enclosures with the longest gridline in the northern enclosure measuring 875 metres and 1050 metres in the southern enclosure.
21 and 22 August 2004
The pre-pest monitoring exercise was conducted in the enclosures. Only rats were detected. Ink on many of the tracking cards appeared to have been licked off and some cards and tunnels had been chewed. The rat tracking rate in the southern enclosure was calculated at 97.5%, with a 96.6% tracking rate in the northern enclosure.
8 September 2004
Brodifacoum laced bait was aerially spread across the northern and southern enclosures.
16 October 2004
The pest monitoring exercise in the enclosures began. First to check their lines were Willetta Staheli, Rosalie Treanor and Lesley Efremoff who had two lines in the southern enclosure. A couple of hours after entering the bush they had returned with a bundle of tracking cards showing no evidence of rats or mice but a healthy selection of weta and lizards prints.
|
Ally Tairi
checking
tracking tunnels
in the northern
enclosure. |
|
July 2005
The Department of Conservation declared the enclosures safe for kiwi.
23 July 2005
Milestone event - four kiwi were released into the northern enclosure. They were the first kiwi to walk on Maungatautari in an estimated 100 years.
1 November 2006
Brodifacoum laced baits were aerially spread across the main mountain (minus the enclosures) followed six weeks later by a second drop.
7 September 2007
Third aerial spread of Brodifacoum over the main mountain.
