Rangers trap rat on pest-free Motutapu island
Tuesday, 10 July 2018
When a rat was spotted on Auckland's pest-free bird sanctuary, Motutapu island, all the tricks of the rat catching trade were employed.
They used peanut butter, walnuts, ink pads, tunnels, traps, a specially trained rat tracking dog and even a well placed spray or two of rodent odour.
This was no easy mission though.
After first being spotted on June 26, the rat evaded a DOC ranger and his rodent-detecting conservation dog by jumping into a stream and swimming away.
READ MORE: E-rat-icated: Rodent removed from protected Tiritiri Matangi Island
Motutapu island has been pest-free since 2011 and is home to threatened native birds such as the takahē, Coromandel brown kiwi and pāteke.
Extra traps and tracking tunnels were set in the area and the rat's tracks were recorded on ink pads inside the tunnels which were baited with peanut butter.
Of the extra traps, 25 were baited with peanut, walnuts and rabbit meat and eight were scented with rat odour.
It was the rat body odour which was finally the rodent's undoing.
DOC Auckland inner islands operations manager Keith Gell said in a statement on July 7 that the rat was caught and killed in a trap full of rat odour which proved 'highly effective in luring the rat into the trap'.
'Catching the rat has been a great team effort.
'It shows our biosecurity systems to protect the pest free islands in the Hauraki Gulf are effective,' Gell said.
There was an 'ever-present risk' of a rat, mouse or other pest making it to one of the sanctuary islands, he said.
'We want to remind boat owners to make sure there isn't a rat or a mouse stowed away on their vessel, whenever they're heading out to sea in the Hauraki Gulf.'
In January, panic was sparked on another pest-free island in the Hauraki Gulf when rat footprints were found on Tiritiri Matangi island.
A few weeks later, the rat was found, trapped and killed.
Rats are considered a major threat to native wildlife as they eat eggs and chicks of native birds, native lizards and weta, and deprive native birds of food.