Third stoat on Kapiti Island
The stoat, believed to be a female, is the third to be captured this year. A male stoat was caught on the island in February and last month a female carrying four babies was trapped. There are now fears there may be a breeding population of the pest on the island, home to threatened native birds like kiwi and kaka, and believed to be pest free for at least a decade.
Department of Conservation Kapiti area threats manager Colin Giddy admits the captures prove stoats were on the island and while he said it was “like finding a needle in a haystack” he was confident their population was small.
“We’ve got 190 traps on the island and they’re set every night, Giddy says. “We also have a full time trapper and specialist pest dogs have been combing the island and no further signs of stoats have been found.”
Giddy says Stoats are good swimmers and may have arrived on driftwood after recent heavy storms. DNA tests yet to be carried out may determine where the stoats came from.
Kapiti Island was cleared of goats and cats in the 1920s and a programme to eradicate possums killed more than 20,000 in the 1980s. After rats were eradicated in 1996 the island was declared pest free.
Giddy says DOC needs to go two years without finding any predators before the island can be considered predator free.
The news, however, is better for Wellington’s eco attraction Zealandia. Conservation manager Raewyn Empson says they’ve never had a stoat since pests were eradicated from the 225 hectare sanctuary and the predator free fence was erected in 1999.
“We know there are stoats outside the fence so you’d expect we’re more at risk than an island surrounded by water,” Empson says.
She says there had only been two breaches of the fence, by rats, after trees had fallen on the fence creating a bridge.
“The success of our fence has exceeded all expectations.”










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