TRAP CATCH RESULTS

All trap catches are recorded as the traps are serviced and the tallies are summarised in the tables below. Catch rates increased initially as the management area was extended, and then as trap density was increased and traps and lures improved. Catch rates are now approximately constant as residents have been removed and invaders are caught. Detailed results indicate that most pests are now caught near the boundaries.

Stoat trap lines were installed from 2003 to 2006. Rat traps were installed in the 650 hectare core area in 2005 and 2007. Intensive trapping for possums, Trichosurus vulpecula began in the core area in September 2010. In 2014 and 2015, additional possum traps were installed on trap lines S2 – S9, P1 and P2.

Stoats, Mustela erminea are the most numerous mustelids in the forest.  Weasels, M. nivalis vulgaris prefer a more open habitat and are caught at the forest edges. There are few ferrets, M. furo in Northland (their favourite prey, rabbits, are not abundant) and only three have been caught by the Trust in Puketi.

All the rats caught in the forest are presumed to be ship rats, Rattus rattus. Norway rats, R. norvegicus may occasionally be caught at the forest edges but they are difficult to distinguish from the deteriorated remains in a trap and rat species are not recorded. Mice, Mus musculus and hedgehogs, Erinaceus europaeus are known to predate native invetebrates and the nests of ground-nesting birds but are not targeted at this stage. Mice are a bycatch in rat traps throughout and hedgehogs are a bycatch in mustelid traps at the forest edges.