Thermal camera captures stoats at Auckland's pest-free Shakespear Regional Park

Thursday, 29 April 2021

A stoat is captured by a thermal camera designed to monitor pests at Auckland's Shakespear Regional Park.

Stoats have been spotted at Auckland’s Shakespear Regional Park, a pest-free haven to native birds, including kiwi.

The park, on the Whangaparāoa Peninsula, is a sanctuary that provides wildlife with a safe and pest free habitat, according to Auckland Council's website.

A 1.7 kilometre pest-proof fence was built between Army Bay and Okoromai Bay in 2011 and a pest eradication programme implemented to monitor the 500-hectare sanctuary.

It is home to many endemic bird species, including little spotted kiwis, robins, whiteheads, hihi (stitchbird) and saddlebacks, and is one of the country’s most visited and accessible wildlife sanctuaries.

**READ MORE:

The stoat was spotted by a thermal camera not long after two stoats were trapped in January.

* 40 hihi released at Shakespear Regional Park, marking return to Auckland mainland

* Christmas present at Shakespear as kiwi eggs spotted

Stoats pose a significant risk to threatened native birds and lizards. (File photo)

* Whitehead success as rare birds spotted outside Shakespear sanctuary

Kiwi are among the endemic bird species that live at the Shakespear Regional Park wildlife sanctuary.

* Safe haven at Shakespear Open Sanctuary for spotted kiwi

Stoats pose a significant risk to threatened native birds and lizards – with one believed to have killed three tūturuatu (shore plover), one of the world’s rarest shorebirds, on Motutapu Island in January.

A stoat was first detected at Shakespear sanctuary at the end of 2020, prompting the council to enlist the help of the Cacophony Project, a technology collective working towards the elimination of predators threatening birdlife, and its subsidiary 2040, a not-for-profit that develops equipment to monitor bird and predator populations.

Shakespear Regional Park is a 500 predator-free sanctuary overlooking the Hauraki Gulf.

Matt Maitland, Auckland Council’s senior ranger at the sanctuary, said the stoat later gave birth, with typical stoat litters ranging between two and nine kits.

2040 founder Shaun Ryan said the council rented a thermal camera to try to spot the stoats, after they evaded its usual trail cameras.

While waiting for the thermal camera to be delivered, the council managed to catch two stoats – a male and a female, likely to be the offspring of the original – in a humane trap.

However, a third stoat was spotted by the thermal camera in January, around the same time footage of a kiwi was captured in the park.

“Luckily enough they found the stoat within a couple of days of putting the camera out there, which they hadn’t been able to find with the existing cameras and stoat dogs,” Shaun Ryan said.

Maitland confirmed rangers were still looking to capture at least two more stoats, including the mother.

Following a two-month trial, Auckland Council purchased the $4000 thermal camera.

“Stoats were previously eradicated and we want to return the open sanctuary to being stoat free as soon as possible so that our native species can continue to thrive there,” Maitland said.

“The camera has not yet been used at other sites but once the Shakespear incursion has been resolved, it will play a valuable part in future pest surveillance and incursion management.”