In readiness for that review, many environmental groups that have previously shied away from publicly discussing the issue of feral cats are coming forward to do so, including Gisborne’s Eastern Whio (Blue Duck) Link.
While the exact number of feral cats in our wild landscapes is unknown, it’s estimated to be in the millions – dwarfing our 1.5 million pet cat population.
In the wild, a female cat can fulfil her reproductive potential to have up to 300 kittens in her lifetime. Male cats are known to grow up to 10kg (think a big sack of potatoes).
They’re apex predators: nothing preys on them, except for humans — when we set our minds to controlling them.
The Eastern Whio Link (EWL) is a group led by Gisborne-based hunters, fishers, farmers, and tangata whenua, determined to bring back the endangered whio, or blue duck, to the Waioeka Gorge.
Spokesman Hamiora Gibson aka Sam the Trap Man says there were only four pairs of whio left in the gorge when the group started out three years ago. Since then, they have successfully nurtured and protected 56 ducklings, something Sam says they are “pretty proud of”.
All it really took was to keep predators in check, he said.
While the group has talked a lot about its work trapping stoats, it’s only recently been more vocal about its efforts to control feral cats. On its Facebook page last month, EWL publicly announced it had increased its number of dedicated feral cat traps, with good results.
Sam says another 70 dedicated traps were added to 90 that had already been deployed by EWL over 4000 hectares within the overall 30,000 to 40,000-hectare conservation programme area.
Many of those traps are on farm stations; farmers are keen to support the project as it also helps to control the risk of stock becoming infected by toxoplasmosis — a parasite transmitted to humans through undercooked meat or contact with cat faeces.
The traps were initially funded by EWL until the group secured a grant under Gisborne District Council’s Natural Heritage Fund.
The group is conscious the issue of wild cats is a contentious subject. Many people view all cats as taonga (treasured) species in the same way EWL views whio, Sam says. However, the cats EWL trap aren’t people’s much-loved domestic pets. They’re not even the abandoned cats that get dumped at the end of roadways — domesticated cats don’t tend to survive too well in the bush.
The cats in the conservation area are truly wild — powerful, highly-skilled hunters, born and bred in the bush for generations, miles from any human settlement and growing fat off the land from a smorgasbord of species that includes our native lizards, frogs, birds, eggs and wetas. Sam has also seen cats eating trout and possum carcasses left behind by hunters and fishers.
While there is no scientific data on the
effects of feral cats on whio or kiwi populations, EWL has seen cats predating on whio chicks, Sam says.
“They also have a huge impact on lizards and bats and we’ve got both species of NZ bat in our project footprint.”
The EWL group’s philosophy is about looking after the ecosystem that fed them growing up, Sam says.
“When we grew up hunting and fishing there were whio everywhere in the rivers. We could hear kiwi calling from our huts at night-time, but in our adult lives, that has disappeared.
“It’s not anyone else’s jobs but ours to look after the ecosystems that look after us, with venison and fish, etc . . . So, we just figured it was up to us.”
The group has three full-time trappers in the Waioeka and more than 100 volunteers — mostly hunters and fishers, who check traps on the weekends.
The traps are carefully installed off the ground with running boards, so there is no risk to weka in the area.
With the upcoming review of the Predator Free New Zealand plan, Sam is pleased about a recent increase in public discussion and “respectful” media coverage about feral cats, particularly a recent piece by Paddy Gower on his namesake television show Paddy’s Got Issues.
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