Thread: Bird Predator Control

I am just trapping a public Park these days - not catching any stoats or ferrets, but they must be around as I see them dead on the highway
Rat numbers increased during March - despite very low kill numbers in January (23) and a slight increase in February (36) - kill numbers during March have increased to 114 - four of us cleared 34 on one day
It looks like they have had a great summer breeding season and the younger ones have left home and are on the move - looking for a good feed of possum paste and some steel around their necks
We are seeing aggressive feeding on trapped bodies - some completely or partially devoured back to the box trap entrance and some removed from the tunnel traps
Some Ditrac bait starting to move this month - but that won’t do them much harm
Other than the rats, we got 4 possums and 8 hogs in March - 195 bird predators so far for 2018
I am starting to get a few bodies under the A24s - two sites with double kills and three sites with single kills - so they do work - but mainly young rats learning some “hard” lessons
I am always looking for a new set and continue to find fallen logs to be very successful - often over-night results - possibly the younger ones checking out something new
Not sure where these rat numbers are heading - but Predator Free NZ seems to be a long way off using traps and bait - we got 500 bird predators during 2017 and it looks like we will see that sort of number again this year
Quail numbers are looking good - several coveys of 50 or more - great to see them doing well