Whats_going

Unfortunately 3 of our mustelid trap boxes along the Foveaux Walkway have been stolen and hiffed down cliffs. We found the remains of one, but it's a pretty wild sea down there. Hopefully all is not in vain and the boxes are having a happy reincarnation as homes for endangered marine life. We're unsure if the culprits are just half-witted vandals or if they actually have a problem with the trapping. We have been lucky to only encounter a wee bit of maliciousness in the 6 months since we put the traps out but we're still piffed off. We will be stepping up our informative signage at walking track entrances, putting some signs at the sites where the boxes used to be and writing a few newspaper articles. We're pretty keen on it not happening again as each box will cost us about $100 to replace.

Rats. We're hoping to get the final sign off from DOC on our rat poison permit very soon so we can get the poison tunnels out. Until then we are having workdays cutting access tracks for the rat and possum lines. These lines will contour the whole hill and be 100 metres apart. The possum traps will be at 100m intervals on the line and the poison tunnels will be at 50m intervals.

Rodent Monitoring. Tracking tunnels were laid out to see what numbers of rats and mice were present on the hill. Tracking tunnels work by attracting the rodents in with a blob of peanut butter, they then walk over an ink pad then leave their prints on a piece of paper before exiting unharmed. There are ten 500 metre long lines spread over the hill, each line has ten tunnels on it. The ink pads will be refreshed and new data collected from the tunnels every 3 months. This will help us assess how trapping and baiting is affecting rodent numbers.

Morepork monitoring. During February and March. Several hardy souls spent their nights sitting at specific points in the bush listening for moreporks and recording the compass bearing and distance of morepork calls. Sadly we barely heard anything except the comforting hum of the aluminium smelter, which could be why one morepork listener took to slaying possums with his bare hands whilst at his listening post. Hopefully next year we'll be so busy recording calls that there'll be little time for dispatching possums. We are keen to see what numbers of morepork are on the hill and how they will be affected by the trapping project. We hope that the population will flourish as they often nest on or near the ground or in tree trunks, so are easy meals for stoats.

Possum traps. There are 'possum master' traps (see above) every 100 metres on one of the walking tracks. We are finding that the rats are eating the lures off them so they're not really catching much and it is a waste of time and money to be constantly replacing lures. We need to whack the rat numbers down before these traps can be efficient for us. We are using noose traps in areas near the walking tracks to minimise danger to dogs and some members of the public.

Mustelid Traps. 'The Isthmus line' has been laid! This line contains ten traps across a 300 metre wide piece of land that connects Bluff to the mainland. This is our first defence against re-invading predators, Isthmus Trap 85 has already foiled the plans of one stoat. We've only caught that 1 stoat in the last 6 weeks or so, hopefully this is because there aren't many left, it's hard to tell. We've seen less hedgehogs in the traps too, with the recent nippy breezes they'll be thinking about hibernating soon. For now it's a rat festival out there! Rats are generally what's referred to as 'neophobic' -afraid of new things, so it has taken them a while to get comfortable enough with traps in their area to attempt to sample the delights of salted rabbit meat. They all seem pretty comfortable now because there's many a nasty tail sticking out of the traps. There is a lot of miro fruit around at the moment which entails that the rats will be well fed, therefore more will survive the winter and breed more.

There are now 90 double set 'DOC 150 & 200' trap boxes out on the hill, they are being rebaited monthly with salted rabbit meat. A close eye is kept on the traps since they are mainly on the popular walking tracks. If a walker sees something furry, spiny or slithery sticking out they let us know and we excitedly dispose of it. The lid of the trap box is secured with a screw cheifly so that curious people don't get their hands mashed but also so that the trap must be cleared by a volunteer possessing the right sized spanner who will be able to tell the species, gender and age of the animal and report back to HQ. A few people are in charge of each different track line of traps, it is their responsibility to make sure the bait is good and that the traps are checked regularly and to do any necessary maintenance. Each trap box has been kindly sponsored by a local person or business.

Bluff Community School concluded this term's 'enquiry' into Bluff Hill with a cheerful dissection of a stoat and a possum by a trust member. The children were thrilled to be able to identify some of the stomach contents of the pests and see everything (literally) close up -photos pending!
Everyone at Bluff School has been very encouraging and keen about the work on the hill, they have learnt all about it and amongst other things; helped make the rat poison tunnels, set up their own rodent monitoring lines and planted seedlings at Southland Community Nursery for future transfer to Bluff Hill. Go Bluff School!