Bait stations keeping Eglinton rats under control

Date:  21 October 2009

Monitoring of rat numbers following the first month of ground control using bait stations in key parts of the Eglinton Valley has returned encouraging results.

Contractors, Department of Conservation (DOC) staff, and volunteers have been filling close to 1100 bait stations spread across 950 hectares with cereal pellets containing the rodent poison pindone. The work began on 7 September and the first monthly monitoring results are in and show the bait stations are working well. No rats were tracked by the monitoring tunnels inside the treated area compared to 11% outside the bait station blocks.

Te Anau’s Biodiversity Programme Manager Lindsay Wilson said the results show that at this time the control programme is working well. “However the area with bait stations is only a small percentage of the total valley”.

Contractors will begin setting up an additional 500-600 ha of bait stations next week to expand the protected area into other parts of the valley.

 Each station is filled with 500g of bait, and then checked and topped up every two weeks. “The success of the programme relies on bait being available right through the required control period, and baiting is likely to continue until the end of summer” Mr Wilson said.

Control work was started this winter in response to indications that rat numbers were likely to rise to damaging levels in the Eglinton Valley following a moderate amount of beech seed production (mast) in the forest during autumn. Significant reductions in populations of native bats and birds were recorded the last time rats increased in the valley following the 2006 beech mast. Both species of bats and many threatened native birds have disappeared from places they were historically found due to predation from rats and stoats. It is hoped that predator control work in the Eglinton Valley can ensure the long term viability of these native species where they still occur.

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