Thread: Tell 'em they're dreaming . . . Govt announces new policy, predator free by 2050

Rats...googled this...

Brown rats live in large, hierarchical groups, either in burrows or subsurface places, such as sewers and cellars. When food is in short supply, the rats lower in social order are the first to die. If a large fraction of a rat population is exterminated, the remaining rats will increase their reproductive rate, and quickly restore the old population level

soooooooo....

doc researched it with landcare research using 1080 EBs, seems they go well above pre-poison levels within 12-18 months.

Her eis a thought,

They found a few foreign Fruit flies in Auckland a few years back....How much did they spend to remove these pests from becoming established? They were in a small area, and in numbers that if they were natives would be condsidered extremely endangered. That level of effort across the whole country will destroy us.

I am not saying they did the wrong thing there, quite the opposite, it was something we definitely do not want here and they were right to pursue that course of action. But do they realise, that was like a teenager saying "I changed a light bulb in my car, that means I am ready to do a full strip down and restoration on it. Should be ready by the weekend...."

I like the idea they want to try, I like the idea that they want to do more to eradicate and control pests, but they are attempting something they cannot ever even hope to succeed at.

Originally Posted by Wirehunt

doc researched it with landcare research using 1080 EBs, seems they go well above pre-poison levels within 12-18 months.

ye gods...

Originally Posted by Wirehunt

doc researched it with landcare research using 1080 EBs, seems they go well above pre-poison levels within 12-18 months.

Which is perfect really as you have to re apply 1-2 years later due to a rat explosion due to a "beach seeding mast"

listen the whole things easily solvable just get murray[bribe ,em] mcully involved.
within a week or 3 the preds will be toastin thier arses in a saudi desert predator hub where not one will survive.
and for 4 million quid plus we can also artificislly boost air nz,s profit line by bookin the stoats and weasels the sheep seat s
[dammit i mean cheap seats]
the pred weasels and stoats i mean not murray and the big red dumb.
WHATS ARABIC FOR THANK YOU MR FERRET FOR YOUR KIND GIFTS OF WEASELS AND STOATS and cash shhh.
by the way effendi we,l find someone else to sell us live sheep with even less scruples and even less positive cash flow [i know you should laugh]
also your saudi trade deals got as much chance as the tpp and cost as much to.
so salaam salaam and fuck you very much

You guys don't understand middle management speak. They don't actually mean predator free, they just mean they will have pest controls programs in place that will cost the full amount of money they have budgeted for. There is no way they would tie their jobs to actual results. That would be suicide.

But I will observe that it is good practice to make dramatic claims that will come to fruition after most of the people involved are either dead or retired.

Yep. Bureaucracies' prime function is self perpetuation. In DoC's and TBFree 's cases the rat rebreeding capacity is a business model. Fleecing the taxpayer is the incidental consequence and this income secured by statute legislation based on bullshit.

Hello @Woody Happy New Year!

Originally Posted by Maca49

Hello @Woody Happy New Year!

+1

Yep; but I;ll be a damned sight happier when the green rain is stopped for ever.

Take a tip from me hahaha.

Originally Posted by viper

I am afraid it's well meaning but I think long term it will fall well short of it's objectives.
I have a friend who is very high up in Veterinary science and on NZ animal and export boards. The work has been done through Gene's to make Possums sterile within a few breeding cycles but it can't be used because of NZ law's on Genetic engineering.
This big Rabbit virus that was supposed to be released that some guys talked about on here hasn't happened because the shit mutated in the Lab were it was been developed in Australia and suddenly it's got unknown risks attached.

I look at the massive and very expensive effort that went into the Fruit Fly control in Auckland years back with planes literally flying over the suburbs dropping insecticide on us, cost millions and millions to get on top of a very small area / outbreak, how the f#@k are they going to control multiple species over the massive areas they are talking about.
All I can see is 1080 thrown around like confetti , some poison companys making huge profits and some contractors also making a lot of money.

Like a lot of these idea's it looks great on paper but in the real world Mr Rat will get the last laugh

You are talking abotu Calici virus - which was illegally imported to Nz rom Oz (SA) in some rabbit carcass It did not mutate. It was released no Sth Wandong Island and it seems fliles carried it over to the coast and into SA proper while testing was being done on how effective it was on rabbits. THe whole idea was that if it were shown safe it was going to be brewed up on large scale and spread all over at once.

The Calicivirus was imported as a live virus from Spain where it has been for generations as a rabbit virus. Possibly it could be rejigged genetically** to make it more virulent. Well it's in Nz, it make have kicked off a few rabbits in the SI, but it's not the cure all (zero rabbits and hares ) that Australians hoped for.

** GMO stuff (eg Canola) is allowed with restrictions in some Oz states. It's forbidden in Nz but I think that applies more to plants and edible animals. You'd likely never get much funding for GM work in any case in a Nz university lab.

what about harrier hawks. One of those bugger took the wood pidgeon chick out of a nest near my house. The adults still havent come back

Originally Posted by Mooseman

The PM's comment that every part of NZ will be targeted is a pretty big task, imagine how much this is going to cost. To be most effective it would need to be a rolling operation with no let up as reinvasion would be occurring straight away. I think any one who thinks eradication is possible especially with the species mentioned is dreaming.
When I was still employed as a Pest Officer in the BOP, DOC, EBOP and Environment Waikato agree to eradicate wallabies in our regions, I left 6 years ago and still the surveys continue to see how far they have spread, but no closer to eradication. It is a nice thought to do these things and rid the country of these pests but unless they develop better ways to do control work it won't happen.
We as hunters know the challenges of our back country and how difficult it will be to carry out the work, and if the powers to be think spraying 1080 is the answer they are wrong, look at how long 1080 has been used and still the pests are there.
Going back to the wallaby eradication plan we figured that after an area had it's initial control operation most likely 1080, contractors on foot would have to hunt the control area three times with trained wallaby indicator dogs before the area would be considered wallaby free.
That would mean every square meter would need checking not once but three times..... now apply that to this current plan and apply that to the whole country for not one species but three ... who's going to pay.
Don't need to be a genius to work out it is highly unlikely this plan will not work. Who's to say deer etc won't be targeted next?

It is easy, just change the definition of 'eradication' for the purposes of this.