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A predator described as “public enemy number one” for birds was found recently in Shakespear Open Sanctuary.
The stoat was retrieved dead from a trap on August 9 during a regular, monthly, check.
Auckland Council Senior Ranger Matt Maitland says this was the sixth mustelid (five stoats and one weasel) to have been detected inside the open sanctuary since completion of pest eradication in 2011.
“Stoats are a deadly threat to our little spotted kiwi and tieke (saddleback),” Mr Maitland says.
He says that the rate of pest incursion experienced since establishing the open sanctuary is considered manageable and acceptable, although it is far from desirable. “For mustelids and other pests to find their way inside the open sanctuary, they have evaded capture in our buffer zone traps and found their way around, or through our pest proof fence,” he says. “In designing the defences and surveillance of the open sanctuary we acknowledge and mitigate the more obvious pathways – navigating around the coastal ends of the pest proof fence, fence failure, stowaway in vehicle or inward goods and swimming, either from open water or boats moored nearby.”
The serious nature of the incursion is acknowledged by DOC, which describes stoats as “public enemy number one” for New Zealand birds.
A DOC spokesperson says that the effect of stoats on the survival of many bird species cannot be underestimated. “They are voracious and relentless hunters. Even a 3kg takahe or 2kg kakapo can be killed by a stoat. Stoats don’t just kill to meet their immediate food needs – they kill every bird they can and store the bodies to eat later.
Birds that nest in holes in tree trunks such as mohua, kaka and yellow-crowned kakariki are easy prey for stoats, which can take out eggs, chicks and adults in one attack.”
