Wellington's Zealandia to set 70 traps for suspected weasel pest intruder

Wednesday, 3 October 2018

A predator is believed to have entered Zealandia on Tuesday - a 'small mustelid, likely weasel'. (File photo)

About 70 traps have been set to kill Zealandia's suspected weasel intruder.

Traps, cameras and tunnels in the ecosanctuary await the pest and the traps and tracking may continue for months.

A tracking tunnel result provided by Zealandia. The tracks show the animal walked through ink and left foot prints on paper. The print shows mustelid prints on the left, and on the right, some tracks left behind by a wētā in the same tunnel.

On Tuesday ink and left foot prints on paper revealed a weasel had likely entered Zealandia, the first incursion in 10 years.

A Zealandia spokesman said they had a plan to catch the unwanted visitor.

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Zealandia's 8.5kn-long fence has been checked for tiny holes, but the weasel may have been dropped in to the sanctuary by a bird.

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'These new traps, they can look a bit novel to an animal and they may avoid them first up.

'As such, we have baited them, but left them unset for a few days to build the animal's trust and confidence … this is a pretty effective technique.'

With 225 hecatres of wildlife, Zealandia have not yet seen any evidence of the predator attacking native animals in the sanctuary.

The sanctuary had created a tunnel with ink and cardboard inside to track the predator, he said.

'We also have camera traps out each night to see if we can catch the culprit on video.'

The mammal's description was a 'small mustelid, likely weasel', he said.

It could have entered Zealandia by being dropped by a predatory bird flying past, like a harrier, he said.

Zealandia's fence has been checked for small holes, and they hadn't found any obvious entry point.

'We are doing some small repairs in a couple of locations just to be sure, but these are more precautionary to prevent any future holes developing.'

So far, no fatalities had been discovered, he said.

The traps would go live next week. The spokesman said even if the predator was caught, the traps and tunnels would have to remain for several months.

'Even if we catch a mustelid on the first day of live traps. We need to make sure there are no other animals present.'

Predator Free Wellington project director James Willcocks said they were available to help in any way that they could.

'We have offered facilitation of additional traps if needed.'

Zealandia were well prepared to deal with the situation, Willcocks said.

'We have every confidence the team will be able to track it down quickly.'