Kereru © James Allan
5th August 2024
Make sure that you are prepared for winter conditions when you are out trapping. Wear sturdy, grippy footwear and warm layers, including gloves! Take a head torch with you if you are going out in the afternoon in case you get caught out after dark, and make sure you let someone know where you are going!
If your trapline is affected by ice or snow, take extra care. If it is icy and a slip risk, please put your safety first and head out another day. Please report any accidents or near misses to us either through your trapping coordinator, to myself or Bonnie, or via our website incident/hazard report form https://whakatipuwildlifetrust.org.nz/resources/
You may have noticed that hedgehog numbers are down as they are hibernating for the winter. The other predators are still out and about, and are hungry as their summer food sources are gone.
To catch mustelids (stoats, ferrets and weasels) fresh is always best! Winter is a great time to be using fresh rabbit as it lasts a lot longer than it does throughout summer. Now is also a good time to try new novel baits like leftover meat from dinner or off cuts from a hunter, and let us know if you find something particularly useful!
We recently tried fried bacon near Lake Hayes Estate and caught two stoats in one week. Some other trappers in Sunshine Bay have been having a lot of luck with possums using carrot and curry powder in their Flipping Timmy traps! Its good to change things up and the carrot doesn’t get stolen by blackbirds and rodents like apple tends to.
Until September, possums will visit green crops to feed. They tend to create visible tracks heading into these crops, which help with setting the perfect trap location. They are also visiting pine tress to eat pine catkins, so target your possum trapping around big old pines. Don’t forget we have our Possum Nightclub Flipping Timmy traps available to lend out so you can target any popular possum areas!
Rodents will look for warmth at this time of year, often sneaking into our sheds and homes, so a good place to position your backyard rodent trap is alongside an outside wall or next to any openings in the wall. They may also try to move in to your compost bin, so trapping nearby is a good idea. Rodents are running out of seeds and fruit and are hungry, so now is a good time to target them.
Keep your stoat traps serviced through the winter and start increasing servicing these traps leading into spring when birds are nesting and breeding to help to slow the mustelid population down. When you catch a stoat, drag its body around the trap and in the area surrounding it – this will encourage more stoats to investigate the trap and hopefully be caught!
Feral cats will also start breeding now until around December. Dumping of domestic cat kittens is also common over this time. Let us know if you spot dumped or feral kittens.
This calendar from Predator Free NZ provides an excellent month-by-month action plan for predator trapping. Our resource page also has plenty of information about trapping. And of course, if you have any questions about trapping and baiting, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
Source: Predator Free NZ Predator Control Calendar.
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