Thread: Bird Predator Control

That's a great collection of dead cats!!!!! Excellent.

If you are locked down and want something to read – take a browse back through this Bird Predator Control thread – many skilled trappers from around the Country have contributed

But if you would like to go to a more independent source of information – take a look at this material put together by the Braided River Aid group - BRaid was formed by people from all across the South Island.

https://braidedrivers.org/ - then go to Threats and Predators - https://braidedrivers.org/threats/predators/ - what an amazing source of information

Still keeping a few traps along with the pest control shooting. Raining, so night off and a post for timeout.
The motors are for gassing rabbit holes. Have made up two of these new ones along with my original one! a converted leaf blower.
Just a mix bag of pictures timeout, most in the last couple of weeks.

KH

No berg243, and the skinning days are over. I haven't see an A grade among them.
If you have a plucker let me know by a pm.
The plucking by machine is different than by hand as far as sales go, this is my understanding.
For the we few that we get this way it's not worth the effort.
I could make a soak tank and slip the fur off, but as said, the few isn't worth the effort at this point and time of life.
KH

Great work @Kiwi-Hunter
Not a lot of action for me at present with a bad case of PF in my feet a few days before lockdown – my two Mates that do lines at the Park had been unable to leave the City so my Wife has been doing the whole area. She learned not to mess around with an ugly old Victor Pro and came home with bruised fingers. Yesterday she checked about 60 traps and came home as a certified Sentinel operator. I placed it on the ripped gum tree a couple of months back with jam on a piece of carpet for lure – it took a while and a lot of new jam – but it works, and she can re-set a sentinel. All those rat traps and not single dead rat to be seen – maybe they don’t go out in the rain.
I hate throwing old Victors away – so often screw them on a branch around one of my Street lines – nothing for a while with peanut butter so I sloshed a bit of possum paste on top – bingo – two big Norways.
A few less lawn digging rabbits around home – they keep walking through the tunnel – the dog enjoys the back straps and the rest goes in Doc250s.

In sickness and in health, good wife you have there timeout.
Just taken on another project on possum control, shot it the other night and ran a trap line yesterday as sampler for numbers.
Did pick up a cat which is always pleasing in a native block along with a few apple eating tree bears.
Pest control, in level 4! has exemption, we shot and checked trap lines as usual.
Some others couldn't because of the policys of certain groups.
We had no problem here in level 4, although we work alone.
I was able to have my son working with me and he is also a registered contactor.
So those who look after Reserves should of been able to travel to work.
Most don't know this fact and as far as nightshooting goes, it was better! no traffic around no people where they shouldn't be.
KH

Got 2 hogs on a chicken neck, I reset the traps, and a couple of days later got another 2 hogs, on the same chicken neck I got 6 hogs. This trap had caught nothing in about 4 or 5 months, we put some mustelid smell in there and got a stoat almost straight away - a couple of small cats have squeezed their way into the trap as well.

Hi Guys, Do stoats and ferrets eat weasels? The reason i ask is that over the last ten years of trapping i have caught lots of stoats/ferrets/cats etc but never a weasel. Now i only get one or two stoats a year, where i got 45 in the first 18 months. However, recently i got 2 weasels which was a first then my old man said he reckoned the stoats etc would eat them and now i have knocked them back the weasels are moving in???

Interesting question do stoats eat weasels... I think ?? I remember reading about how weasels are attracted to areas where stoats have bedded down and the further comment was "even though a stoat will kill a weasel" So my answer would be yes. Where I trap in the Canty high country roughly 20% of my catch would be weasels but that figure has remained constant even though I reckon I have knocked the stoat population down a fair bit. hope that helps ?

@Dallas welcome to the forum.

Definitely i would say a stoat would eat a weasel. We often find half eaten predators in traps.

However i doubt the weasels are moving in because you have got ontop of the stoats. It is my understanding that the stoat has a larger home range than a weasel.

It is also interesting to note that their target species for food is quite different. Lizards, insects, mice etc for weasels and larger species for stoats.

We catch alot of weasels here as they thrive in wetlands with the abundance of mice. It is very common to catch them in runs.. Often one after the other after the other so make sure you keep your traps set.

Especially the ones catching and I hope you can stomp them out.

Look forward to any updates

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First picture may be missing

The text for the above picture -
Tried and true – the trusty old Victor Pro – removed from a line at the Park as they were not popular - I struggle to biff old traps and found a place on my street line for these two – just screw them to a tree or branch propped up as a ramp – rats like ramps!
A couple of months back I posted a picture of a couple of rats that I trapped on my street line on 12 August – I left them on the ground and they got dragged off - but despite always keeping those traps set with peanut butter – there was no action until 10 November when my wife changed the lure from peanut butter to possum paste – bingo – two young ones. Left them on the ground and gone next day – but the next day there was another learner.
So as Cam Speedy has been telling us on the PFNZ webinars – if it is not working - make a change! Those webinars are great – Cam Speedy is an amazing trapper.
Don’t forget its November – enter your tails in the Swamp Comp – I got a new one a few days back – about 4cm long.

Those traps look like they have been round the block a few times LOL

Originally Posted by time out

Don’t forget its November – enter your tails in the Swamp Comp – I got a new one a few days back – about 4cm long.

Dropped mine in yesterday mate.

1 ferret
4 stoat
5 weasels

All caught on the property, happy to get them


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Still doing a bit and a post for time out.
I thought to bring my companion through the night, as he's as busy as me and sometimes more.
He definitely deserves a bit of praise.
Day picture of dog is one he found that I couldn't in the dark and we had the thermal as well, but was well hidden where it died. The other picture is dog on night shift.
KH