Predator Free Russell – January 2025 Update

Jan 15, 2025

This month from the trap lines...

Ok ok, we might have had a bit of time off over the past few weeks, and so this email is coming to you a bit later than usual, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been checking traps and bait stations across the Predator Free Russell project for the last few weeks. Rats, possums and stoats have still been in our sights over the summer holidays and the numbers of these unwanted invasive predators continue to fall across project areas. Here’s a little recap of what’s been going on while you’ve been at the beach!

Kororāreka Knockdown

The Kororāreka knockdown phase continued as planned in December, with catches holding steady at 37 for the month. We serviced our gear around town twice in December – that’s 1140 trap checks and 1296 bait station checks. 37 catches represents a slight increase from November (being 29), but a continued trend in the right direction toward zero. Sometimes these numbers can sound low, how can we have only caught 280 rats (that’s our current total) around town since we started trapping there? But what we don’t know is how many rats have been taken out by bait stations – this number we know, from predator control work that has been done around the country, will be much higher. All in all, the knockdown is going just as planned and we’re well on our way to our goal of zero rats, possums and stoats in this project area.

Other Project Areas

In all of our other elimination zones (that’s from Okiato to the Gas station and from Wellington Street to Tapeka) we caught only 13 unwanted predators last month. This was made up of six mice, four ship rats, two hedgehogs, one norway rat and one possum. You can see from this that we do get some non-target species – the mice and hedgehogs are not strictly on our hitlist – but the more we can do to mop up these “peripheral predators” (hedgehogs and mice are still invasive predators) the more we are doing to help restore the balance of our natural ecosystems.

We’ve also been continuing to push the project into new areas. At the moment, this primarily involves the valleys of Tikitikioure such as behind the Orongo Bay Top 10, Brumby Lane, Uriti Road, Tikitiki Lane and the coastline between the Gas station and the Transfer station. The team have been hard at work cutting lines, stepping trails and installing gear, all in between servicing the 13,000 devices we have across the peninsula! I know right, that’s a lot of hard work in the hot sun, but we are committed to the end goal! 

Below: target species catches in December outside of Kororāreka and Tikitikioure.

Volunteering

Our equally hard working volunteers continued throughout the Christmas period. Maybe it was a good excuse not to have to go into town for the day! Last month we ran four volunteering days and had 15 volunteers contribute a total of 316 hours of work. We made 450 tree trap boxes, 50 ground trap boxes and about 200 tree bait stations, plus completing a whole bunch of maintenance and pest plant control work around our depot. The work around the depot has been especially helpful to get ready for an upcoming new project: building a Russell Landcare Trust nursery to help feed our restoration and planting efforts around the peninsula.

We’ve also got a few new volunteering opportunities coming up which will be a change from the usual programming. We’re currently looking for volunteers who would be keen to take on responsibility for servicing a trap line or two. This would involve a monthly walk through the bush to bait stations, lure traps, check trail cameras, and recording any catches or bait take in our online system. This is usually a half-day commitment depending on how long your line(s) is/are and would be largely self-led, though we’ll provide all the support, equipment and training you’ll need. If you’d like to be involved with this, please reply to this email and we’ll put you on the list for some training in the very near future and will be in touch.  

Christmas Action

Did you see us at the Christmas Parade? We had a great day and some good feedback on our giant DOC 8000 trap, capable of catching the biggest rats known to man. Thank you to all the wonderful organisers and participants, it was a cool day and a great thing to be a part of in our awesome little town.

The Year Ahead

The year ahead will no doubt be a busy one for the Predator Free Russell project and Russell Landcare Trust as a whole. The trust is in an exciting phase right now as we look to develop a vision and a strategic plan for the next three to five years and continue to grow our organisation, leveraging off the success of Predator Free Russell and 20 years of local environmental action before that. This will see us plan out how we continue to fund Predator Free Russell past the current commitment from our funders (a 12 to 18 month horizon at the moment), and how we put into operation the upcoming Russell Peninsula Ecological Restoration Plan and associated program focussing on the peninsula’s flora, both invasive and native. The Russell Peninsula Ecological Restoration Plan will also provide a pathway for further translocations of threatened species back to the peninsula in the years to come, something we’re sure we can all get excited about. This is shaping up to be an exciting year of refinement and consolidation of the work we’ve done to now, and, of course, a very worrying year if you’re a rat, mustelid or possum living around Russell.

 

Thanks so much for your support,
The Predator Free Russell and Russell Landcare Trust team

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