We have all been trying to remove bird predators to the lowest possible levels – to some extent, in some areas we have succeeded.
Do we have evidence such as video or pictures that show the extent of the damage that various animals cause We have been using video cameras on various tracks around the Park that where we are trying to control bird predators and it is disappointing to find various animals that are too clever to engage with our traps. The last few possums are still walking past our traps, occasionally stopping to lick out the sweet treats that we leave on the inside walls of various traps – cunning enough to avoid tripping the traps. It took me two months to catch a possum that licked the walls of a possum master clean without hanging himself – but they always make a mistake at some stage. Rats are also very clever after they see their mate killed in a trap. Cats avoid traps and walk on past,
My particular interest currently, is the damage that possums do to a Kereru nest – is there any information about how Kereru nests are damaged by possums or rats?
It would be great to be able to share video clips of various bird predators going about their business – but I find it quite difficult to post more that pictures.
Cool topic @mindie! I haven’t seen a lot of kereru nests, but since they seem to be ‘camouflaged’ by their resemblance to a handful of twigs that coincidentally fell into the same tree fork, I imagine that any animal interaction (whether intentionally predatory or not) could do a lot of damage.
Hi Mindie
If you want to post a video probably the easiest way is to post it somewhere else first, like “you tube”, I don’t think you have a website. Then just post the link along with an explaination.
On your traps, I’m sure you will have already tried all sorts, and your situation of animals avoiding traps is fairly common. A few things would be to move them so that they appear different. Close them down for a while, Cam would say still use lure but have the trap unset. Try totally different lures.
There are bits and pieces on line about Possums/ship rats at kereru nest. I’m not really sure what you mean by damage to nest, predated eggs with shell remnants remaining or the nest damaged,
some of the good research was in the 90’s and not online, and I don’t know where it can be found. A friend of mine did ship rat Kereru research in Whirinaki 30 years ago as kereru numbers did not increase as much as expected with pest control, they used tracking tunnels in trees and the problem was aboreal ship rats