Trapper Monthly, March 2025

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A mixed bag really, this March. No pattern, no rhyme nor reason. After last month of only one possum this month we are up again to fourteen possums. And possibly half of them in old and established traps. Like T17 which alone had three possums. But then also T15 and T18 had possums. How is this possible? Again and again it proves that when a trap is once installed it has to stay there for a long time. It is  a slow process this elimination of possums.

Pleasing was that the new traps we put in, the AT220 traps on the Embankment Line, have also taken out some possums. I was not sure what to expect and thought there might be no possums left in that area of the forest. But no.

My theory was that most possums, if not all, would come up during the night through the forest and up to the grass paddocks on the island. To feed on clover and fresh grass. But no. It seems I was wrong. The AT220 caught possums right down by the river, like AT13 and AT16. You can see the locations on the trap.nz map.

The big task achieved this month was the cutting of a new line through the forest on both sides of the track which leads down to the river. It’s called The Embankment. It was there in parts before but did not connect to the walkway itself. Now it is all connected, and one can enter the track at AT4 all the way down to AT17 and from there high above the Rakaia to the river access track and then across and up again to come out on the walkway near D67. Sue and Jon helped with forming the track. Cutting branches, sawing logs and putting in ribbons. It is great fun to be down there with them but exhausting work.

I believe that the new path leads through some of the best bush in the Rakaia Gorge. It is lush with undergrowth, old kowhai stands, mature lancewoods and broadleaf and ferns all over. A delightful walk through there not least because there are always fantails. Loads of fantails and bellbirds to hear and grey warblers. It is well marked now with blue ribbons, but care still has to be taken when attempting to discover the new Embankment Line!
 
The other thing is that we have now three cameras monitoring the wildlife in the forest. Yes I went out and bought two more cameras just to see what is going on. The first camera is near trap T37, one of the new ones is near AT4 and the third near AT14, both of  these new ones on the Embankment Line. I leave them there for a few days. It is very helpful to know whether possums are still around. Like near T57 I had a camera and it showed a possum and a cat! So I put more traps in there and re-lured them often. And we got the possum. Not the cat though. But even the cat did not show up anymore later on.
Then I had a camera at T37 and again it showed a possum right in front of it. So now I put another trap there and used the flour and sugar trick to lure it into the trap. It means you use a mixture of flour and sugar and a bit of cinnamon and sprinkle it all around leading to the trap. No success so far. In the end we will get it!!
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​This cheeky blighter followed me for a long time




​The possums are one thing and one can imagine to maybe one day get the last of them. At least they do not breed faster than what we can possibly get rid of. But the rats?! How is it achievable to get rid of the rats? We have made great inroads into their numbers. Like we have eliminated over 1600 rats. That is a lot of rats but somehow I have a suspicion that they might have been breeding more than what we killed! Statistics tell us that a rat can breed up to 200 babies a year. Not only that but within that year the offspring also produce their offspring meaning that there could be 2000 new rats within a year produced by a single rat! Enormous.

That is the theory. But there are, apart from trapping, other factors limiting the spread of rats in the Rakaia Gorge. One is the relatively cold winters. That knocks them back some. Then we do not have those mast seasons that occur in beech forests. ‘Our’ forest is mainly kowhai which is rather unique. So the food supply is more limited. Of course, they still feed on seeds and worms and other invertebrates and eggs of birds and possibly also on the wetas if they exist. I have never seen one and the ‘Weta Condo’ down by the visitor’s book is still empty.

And then there is us!

Did you know that there are only about 450 Kakariki Karaka birds left in the country. They are bred in Christchurch in the Isaac conservation trust centre. Recently 34 of these birds were flown from Christchurch to Invercargill and from there by helicopter to Dusky Sound!
They have also been released in Arthur’s Pass Hawdon Valley where they were previously quite abundant. Kakariki are a taonga to Ngai Tahu. The feathers of Kakariki were used to weave korowai, a cloak the Maori made and used during important ceremonies and festivities. 

​I reckon that these 34 birds are probably 100.000 dollars birds or more. Is that the price we have to pay for mistakes that our ancestors made when they brought the rats and stoats to New Zealand? I do ask myself is it morally justified, with all the other problems we have in this country. to spend that much money on 34 birds?! I have to say yes because otherwise what we do in the Rakaia Gorge would be equally unjustified and wasted money and effort. You get my point. In the end it means to me that all life on this planet has equal value. A statement that I am sure David Attenborough would agree with. (For ever the cynic I have to ask myself what about the possums and the rats?!)
Thank you all so much again for your help and interest in the project: ‘To establish a native bird and plant sanctuary in the Rakaia Gorge’.

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