Stoat trapping is crucial to saving NZ’s native birds - Brad Windust

Brad Windust and Wero.

Opinion

Brad Windust is co-founder, trustee and volunteer for Bay Bush Action trust doing pest control in the Opua State Forest.

Recently, photos emerged of a kiwi caught in a DoC200 stoat trap.

It prompted more articles about other native birds being caught in stoat traps, like weka and even our majestic, highly intelligent southern kea.

The reaction from conservation trappers was not surprising.

I myself felt like my stomach was tied in a knot. I heard the anxiety, fear, and sadness in trappers' voices, which prompted me to write this.

I too now worry that uneducated people will set off more of my traps. This actually kills kiwi, it does not save them.

I worry people in offices will put more requirements in place, more baffles in traps to stop any native birds from being caught.

This at the expense of catching more stoats.

We can’t save every individual native bird, but it’s about increasing their populations over all.

Because stoats are supercharged predators that find it hard to retain fat, they have to keep killing constantly.

One stoat on average kills two birds per day and lives for two years in the wild. By trapping just one stoat you have potentially saved 1460 birds.

I have a dog named Wero, who is a fully certified Conservation Stoat Detection dog. We work from the top of Aotearoa to Fiordland and many of the offshore islands in between. I see the absolute carnage stoats cause every day to our native wildlife.

Tūī killed by a stoat.

Because my conservation dog shows me stoat caches, I see firsthand what’s really going on. We find freshly killed tūī, lots of tūī, stoats absolutely love tūī.

But also wood pigeons, kākāriki, kiwi, mohua, robins, muttonbirds – even lizards and freshwater crayfish.

Without stoat control 94% of kiwi chicks don’t make it to adulthood. Stoats patrol kiwi nests, waiting for the egg to hatch.

As the egg is hatching, the stoat lurks in the background, waiting.

It attacks the kiwi chick, slashing its spinal cord, then eats its brain and organs. It will then cache the body away in a hollow log or under a rock for later.

With nearly 130,000 new immigrants coming in every year, we need to keep reminding people why pest control is so important.

These beautiful islands of ours are old.

For millions of years, our flora and fauna evolved in a unique environment with no land mammals other than two tiny bats. New Zealand was the land of birds and lizards. Our natives evolved weird and wacky but truly wonderful.

Many of our birds are ground nesters, poor fliers, or can’t even fly at all.

So when humans brought furry mammals to this land, animals that hunt by smell, our native species became helpless. Literally, sitting ducks.

We do have native predators, but they’re birds like hawks, falcons, and weak.

These birds hunt by sight, not smell. This is why many of our birds, lizards, and insects are extremely camouflaged, rather than brightly coloured like in other countries.

Nor have they evolved to hide their scent. For example, kiwi smell like Old Spice deodorant, and kākāpō like peaches.

Wero indicating a stoat den.

After stoats were introduced to these islands to control rabbits, it took only a couple of years before a dramatic decrease in our native bird numbers was noted.

We are currently the second-worst country in the world for extinctions.

But year after year we have perfected ways to rid stoats. We know what works: a network of double DoC200 run-through stoat traps, aerial ProNature and creating pest-free islands and fenced sanctuaries.

Our success stories are amazing.

In the last 60 years, only one mainland bird has become extinct. This is despite severe underfunding and a Conservation Department that’s been kicked about like a political football.

It’s extremely sad that we lost the bush wren, a tiny forest bird from an ancient lineage found nowhere else on Earth.

But what has been saved, in the face of an army of pests, is phenomenal.

There are many birds that would have become extinct this century were it not for the heroic conservation efforts by us all.

What you may not see in the headlines is the transformative impact of stoat control on our ecosystems.

Across the country, thanks to the tireless efforts of dedicated individuals, groups, councils, iwi, and the Department of Conservation, we’ve seen remarkable success stories.

In recent decades, the recovery of species like the kākāpō, which once numbered only 51 individuals, is now a testament to what is possible with proactive conservation.

Today, the kākāpō population has grown to 210 birds. Similarly, the South Island tīeke population, once on the brink of extinction, now flourishes at over 700 birds.

The story is similar for many other species.

The North Island kōkako, nearly lost to the pressures of predation, now boasts over 1600 pairs in 23 different populations.

The North Island brown kiwi and the rowi have recently been removed from the endangered list, showing the true power of pest control.

Whether it’s trapping pests, educating friends and family, or supporting governments and councils with strong conservation values, we all have a role to play in protecting our wonderful wildlife.