Stoats
The stoat is a member of the mustelid family, along with weasels and ferrets. It was introduced to New Zealand late last century to control rabbits and hares. Sadly, New Zealand’s flightless ground nesting birds, its lizards and its insects proved easier to catch than rabbits.
The stoat is somewhat smaller than a ferret, but larger than a weasel, has a bushy black-tipped tail, a dark brown body and a white belly. Specially-bred ferrets, called fitches, have been farmed in New Zealand for their fur.
The introduction of stoats is commonly regarded as one of the worst mistakes ever made by European colonists in New Zealand.
Stoats are now by far the most common of the mustelids and are widespread in forest and on farmland.
Stoats are extremely agile climbers and have a devastating effect on native birds by preying on adult and young birds and raiding nests for eggs. They are expert tree climbers and tidy killers. When they kill a kiwi, or its eggs and chicks, they do not leave a mess. Stoats consume about 100 grams of food a day. If birds make up half of one stoat’s daily intake, that equates to 6 birds a day, or broken down: 2 fantails, 1 tomtit, 2 greywarblers and a silvereye.
To date, the Puketi Forest Trust has removed 264 stoats from the Puketi Forest.
Did you know? Every year stoats kill 60 percent of the 15,000 North Island brown kiwi chicks born.