Farmer Ron Jones trapping predators to protect rare Otago skink

Farmer Ron Jones. Photo / Supplied

When Ron Jones was a youngster growing up on Matarae Station, in Middlemarch, he was told never to shoot wild cats as they were the answer to the rabbit infestation.

Nowadays he has discovered there is an important little creature on the farm which needs his protection from those felines.

The Otago skink is one of New Zealand's rarest lizards. Known as the giant skink, it can grow up to 30cm long and has the highest status of threatened species - "nationally critical".

It is as rare as the kākāpō and is vulnerable to predators such as cats, ferrets and hedgehogs.

Jones said it was not until recent years that he was made aware his Shannon property was home to them.

"I was totally ignorant to the fact that they were living around us. But now I know they're there, I have become absolutely taken by them and it's become a passion of mine to trap their predators and do my bit to try and keep them from extinction."

Jones' neighbour Robin Thomas had been a DOC area manager, involved with skink conservation at Macraes, and it was he who made Jones aware of the lizards' existence on his property.

Farmer Ron Jones wants to make other landowners aware of just how debilitating wild cats and ferrets are on vulnerable wildlife. Jones sets traps for the predators on 20ha of QEII covenanted land which is home to the critically endangered Otago skink. Photo / Supplied

Jones and his wife Juliet decided to put a QEII covenant on 20ha of their land.

"We have been actively trapping that area for the last 12 or so years."

Jones sets about 20 kill traps once a week and will catch an average of three or four cats and just as many ferrets sometimes as well.

"We see an increase in predators when there is a surge in rabbit numbers. It can be quite cyclic."

The higher catch rate he has been seeing lately could also be because he has become more experienced with his trapping methods.

"There's a bit of an art to catching them; rabbit and venison bait using a possum kill trap is very effective, and using scent is a big factor too."

He got onto fish oil; sprinkling a couple of drops around the trap site to lure the predator in.

"it's a terribly strong scent though, you wouldn't want to spill it in your vehicle or on yourself," he said, laughing.

Predator trapping has kept Jones busy since leasing the farm to son Willy and daughter-in-law Emily.

"Juliet says she will never show me any sympathy when I come in from doing my trapping beat; it helps keep me fit and active," he said.

It is important to Jones that landowners are made aware of just how debilitating wild cats and ferrets can be to a vulnerable species.

"Not just for our special lizards in this local area, but also larks and ground-nesting birds, and not to mention they are also terrible carriers of TB," he said.