ZIP Media Release

MEDIA RELEASE: Loss of black-backed gulls and dog during predator elimination.

418 karoro (black-backed gulls) have died as the result of consuming poison bait used in an  operation to remove possums, rats and stoats from a 15,000 hectare block in South Westland. While  the number of dead birds is high, it does appear to be localised to the Waiau (Waiho) River and  nearby coast.  

In addition, a dead dog has also been found, which is likely to have either consumed bait or  scavenged a carcass.  

Al Bramley, ZIP’s Chief Executive, said “The ZIP team is saddened by the unfortunate deaths of these  birds. We are striving to protect the native wildlife in this area and so the team is taking this result  hard. We also acknowledge the upset that this incident has caused for mana whenua Te Rūnanga o  Makaawhio.” 

The predator removal operation, which used sodium fluoroacetate (1080) bait, was carried out by  Zero Invasive Predators (ZIP), as part of the Predator Free South Westland project. This project aims  to restore nature and sustain community by eliminating possums, rats and stoats over a 100,000 hectare area.  

Karoro are not a threatened species, as they are one of the most abundant and familiar large native  birds in New Zealand, with a national population now in excess of one million birds. They are natural  scavengers, and sometimes a pest species on river systems, because they eat the eggs and chicks of  other ground-nesting native birds. They are not given any level of protection under the Wildlife Act.  

At the request of ZIP, a local resident yesterday surveyed the shores of nearby Ōkārito Lagoon, and  reported no issues, and that the usual suite of bird species were present, with no dead birds. 

Native bird populations such as rowi (Ōkārito kiwi), kōtuku (white heron) and kea are expected to  thrive from the removal of possums, rats and stoats. Eliminating possums also removes the risk of  bovine TB for the local farmers. When these predators are eliminated, there will be no need for the  future repeated use of toxins at the landscape scale. This project is also helping to maintain  employment for local people, in a region that has suffered significant loss of tourism due to COVID 19. 

ZIP rangers will continue to survey the beach and other parts of the area covered by the predator  removal operation. Forecast heavy rain this weekend is expected to render the baits non-toxic, but  any predator or bird carcases will remain a risk to dogs until fully decomposed.  

Phase 1 predator elimination operation being completed in the South Ōkārito block

Phase 1 of the predator elimination mahi in South Ōkārito is being completed this week! We expect to begin the aerial application of cereal bait containing sodium fluoroacetate (1080) today (23 November 2021). The baiting should be concluded by the end of 24 November.

As was the case with the non-toxic prefeed applications earlier this month, this operation will involve:

• Closing the Forks-Ōkārito Road between 9am and 2pm (on 24 November) while helicopters are operating overhead and road crews safely undertake post-sowing inspections. There will be no vehicle or pedestrian traffic permitted along the road during this time.

• Closing all DOC tracks within the operational area, as well as beach access south of Ōkārito village. These will remain closed for the full duration of this aerial operation, and ZIP staff will be stationed on site and will advise when these facilities are re-opened.

• Continuing the use of a drone to apply bait, under the watchful eye of a pilot and tracked with GPS, to see how this technology can be used to eliminate predators. Helicopters, using GPS guidance systems, are still doing the majority of the baiting.

 If you are in the South Ōkārito area, please take note of all warning signs and follow the guidance provided. This advice is there to keep you, your whanau, and your animals safe. Please do not touch any bait if you come across it.

 Dogs should be kept under strict control at all times and have no access to the operational area, as they are highly susceptible to poisoning. The beaches and river banks are a high-risk area for dogs following aerial 1080 operations. Please note that poisoned carcasses may be present in the area for some months after the completion of this work, and these present a risk to dogs.  

 With regards to hunting, information on where bait was applied and the associated hunting cautions can be found on the DOC Pesticides Summary page (https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/pests-and-threats/pesticide-summaries/). 

 Your support for this important mahi is very much appreciated – we acknowledge that these temporary restrictions may cause some inconvenience. Thank you for doing your part to help make South Westland predator free.

 This predator elimination mahi is part of the Predator Free South Westland project, which aims to eliminate predators from 100,000ha of South Westland. Removing predators from South Ōkārito will enable rowi, kōtuku, kea and other taonga to thrive. Eliminating possums also removes the risk of bovine TB for the local farmers. Without these predators around, there will be no need for repeated landscape use of toxins. Furthermore, this project is creating jobs, and maintaining employment, for many in the local region that has suffered economic hardship from the significant loss of tourism.

Phase 1 of predator elimination work is continuing in the South Ōkārito block

Phase 1 of the South Ōkārito aerial operation continues this week, with the second of two non-toxic prefeed applications taking place on Thursday 18 November. Using non-toxic prefeed bait gives predators a taste for the pellets, which they learn to treat as a food source – increasing their uptake of the toxin bait that is subsequently presented to them.

The toxin application – the final step of Phase 1 – will take place no sooner than 22 November.

There will be no aerial operations over the festive holiday period. Phase 2 is expected to begin in late January.

Just like the earlier prefeed application completed on 3 and 4 November, the second prefeed will involve:

• Closing the Forks-Ōkārito Road between 10am and 2pm while helicopters are operating overhead and road crews safely undertake post-sowing inspections.

• Closing all DOC tracks within the operational area, as well as beach access south of Ōkārito village. ZIP staff will be stationed on site and will advise when these facilities are re-opened.

• Continuing the trial use of a drone to precisely sow bait along the boundary edge of the operational area. The drone is being deployed, under the watchful eye of a pilot and tracked with GPS, to see how this technology can be used to eliminate predators. Helicopters, using GPS guidance systems, are still doing the majority of the sowing

• Using non-toxic prefeed bait that is dyed green. This is to support the work done to train kea to avoid eating cereal bait (they have already learnt to avoid look-a-like baits because those ones temporarily make them feel sick).  

 In conjunction with the aerial operations, ZIP have now begun baiting some of the ground-based predator elimination devices that are around the perimeter of the block. Combining aerial and ground-based operations, along with cutting edge technology, gives the best chance of success for the Predator Free South Westland project.

Removing predators from South Ōkārito, and throughout the PFSW project area, will enable rowi, kōtuku, kea and other taonga to thrive. Eliminating possums also removes the risk of bovine TB for the local farmers. Without these predators around, there will be no need for repeated landscape use of toxins. Furthermore, this project is creating jobs, and maintaining employment, for many in the local region that has suffered economic hardship from the significant loss of tourism.

Your support for this important mahi is very much appreciated – we acknowledge that there may be some inconvenience along the way. Thank you for doing your part to help make South Westland predator free.

Sniffing out rats on both sides of the Tasman

ZIP Field Ranger Chelsea, and Rat Detection Dog Baxter’s job is to find rats that have either survived a predator elimination operation, or that have reinvaded an area that was previously predator free. They usually spend their days trying to find rats within the footprint of the Predator Free South Westland project. They got more than they bargained for earlier this year though, when they left the West Coast and ventured off shore to help with a rat invasion.

Chelsea and Baxter (taken before their adventure abroad)

Lord Howe Island is some 600km off the coast of New South Wales, and is home to many unique and special species. The island had been rodent free for 16 months. So, when a rat incursion occurred, Chelsea and Baxter, along with another team from the NZ Conservation Dog Programme, headed over to help.

The settlement area of Lord Howe Island

Due to the Delta outbreak, getting home was much more complicated than getting over to Lord Howe. What was supposed to be a short stint turned out to be a lot longer. While a tropical island is not a bad place to be stranded, they were keen to get back to Aotearoa. Their return home was further complicated by having to leave the dogs behind, and wait to be reunited once the dogs had passed a health check. You can read more about their mahi on the island and their mission to get home in this Stuff article.

Aside from the hitches in getting back and being separated from loved ones, Chelsea said that it was a great experience overall. She enjoyed being part of a squad of dog teams, and the different setting gave her valuable insight into their work back home – the challenging but rewarding task of detecting the last few rats in South Westland terrain.

One of Chelsea’s key observations was it seemed easier to pick up on the rats on Lord Howe Island. She puts this down to the rats being used to living around humans, and making their nests on the ground where Baxter could find them more readily. The warm weather also preserved scent for longer, compared to the wet West Coast.

Chelsea and Baxter detecting rats on Lord Howe Island

Having the experience of working in a residential setting (most of the Lord Howe Island work was within the main settlement) was also really valuable for Chelsea and Baxter. ZIP has just begun predator elimination work in and around South Ōkārito, which includes some private land and settlements.  Chelsea gained an insight into how important it is to engage with the community, and found the experience enriching, albeit challenging at times.

For Baxter, the highlights were endless. He got to have the excitement of regularly finding recent rat scent, and because his reward for finding rats is playing with his favourite ball, he was pretty chuffed to be searching around residential properties. Aside from the retrieval of rat carcasses, Baxter’s side hustle was retrieving lost tennis balls in backyards – his best tally was six in one day!

Predator elimination work underway in South Ōkārito for the Predator Free South Westland Project

Over the past 9 months, on behalf of Predator Free South Westland, ZIP has been preparing to remove predators from the South Ōkārito block. Much of this planning has involved numerous conversations with Makaawhio, the local community, and private landowners. These conversations have been instrumental in guiding what this work will look like.

To begin the predator elimination mahi, ZIP are now getting underway with the aerial operation. The first non-toxic prefeed application is taking place on Wednesday 3 November. Toxin will not be applied until after 15 November.

The non-toxic prefeed bait is dyed green. The reason for this is that, over the past several months, ZIP have been teaching kea to avoid eating cereal bait by providing them with look-a-like baits that temporarily make them feel sick. Doing this makes kea much less likely to eat toxic bait when they come across it later.  

During the baiting operation, the Forks-Ōkārito Road will be closed (for up to 4 hours) while helicopters are operating overhead and road crews safely undertake post sowing inspections. All DOC tracks within the operational area, and beach access south of Ōkārito village will also be closed during the pre-feed operation. ZIP staff will be stationed on site and will advise when these facilities are re-opened. We acknowledge these disruptions may cause inconvenience, and thank you for your understanding and support for this important work.  

ZIP are also gearing up to start the ground-based predator elimination around the perimeter of the rowi sanctuary, with good progress being made on installing bait stations and traps. The team will begin applying the bait and setting those traps within the next few weeks.

Removing predators from South Ōkārito, and throughout the PFSW project area, will enable rowi, kōtuku, kea and other taonga to thrive. Eliminating possums also removes the risk of bovine TB for the local farmers. This project is creating jobs, and maintaining employment, for many in the local region that has suffered economic hardship from the significant loss of tourism.

From the trap to the (autopsy) table

As part of a recent current affairs episode looking at the PF2050 mission, a film crew from Australia showcased a part of our work that doesn’t often get airtime – what happens to a rat after it has come to its demise in one of our traps?

While a capture might seem like the natural end point – there is actually a lot more to the story.

ZIP is currently field trialling a highly effective trap that humanely euthanises the rat once caught, allowing the retrieval of an intact body. Once the trap has been sprung, a node on top of the trap pings out an alert to the rangers to go and check it out. As you can see in the video the rat carcass gets safely stowed away in a snaplock bag (or perhaps a retired lunch box) ready for its journey over the main divide to ZIP’s research facility at Lincoln.  

Once in the lab the rat carcass undergoes a forensic autopsy. This might sound like something out of a crime show, but the information a single rat can tell us is huge.

From its teeth we can tell how old it is. The whiskers can tell us where the rat came from – if the whiskers glow under fluorescence microscope, then it is an invader who ate a biomarked snack we left for it along the way. And if the rat is a female, we can tell if it has bred and how many times it has produced young – we will know if it was just a solitary rat or if there are another eight or more still to be caught out there.

All the information we’re able to glean from these dead rats help us to unpick the challenge in front of us – and is vital to driving the innovation we need to get to a predator-free Aotearoa by 2050.

You can watch the video either through the embedded viewer on this page or here on Al Jazeera English’s YouTube page. The story features other conservation initiatives, with the main section about ZIP’s mahi starting in just before the 17min mark.

Predator elimination work underway in the Whataroa-Butler catchment area

Seven juvenile kea spotted together in the Perth River Valley, April 2020. Image © ZIP Ltd.

We have begun the programme of work to eliminate predators from the Whataroa-Butler catchment area – using the same approach that ZIP successfully used in the neighbouring Perth River valley in 2019. This is the first step towards achieving a Predator Free South Westland.              

Just after Easter, we undertook the first of two (planned) non-toxic aerial prefeed baiting applications. The non-toxic prefeed bait is dyed green. This is to make sure it looks identical to the bait we are using to teach kea to avoid bait the next time they come across it.

The toxin application (using bait that has also been dyed green) is expected to be completed by mid June, weather pending.

We will not be preventing public access to the area while we are working there. Prior to toxic baiting, warning signs will be placed at each hut. Water supplies will be temporarily disconnected until the bait is cleared from the immediate surrounds. Toxic bait will also be cleared from public tracks immediately after sowing.

Predator Free South Westland

On the 11th of March the Minister of Conservation, the Hon Kiritapu Allan, officially launched Predator Free South Westland (PFSW). 

Eliminating possums, rats and stoats from 100,000 hectares of South Westland is an ambitious goal. We are excited to play our part in PFSW. ZIP will be responsible for the day-to-day operational delivery of the project. This is the first time as an organisation that we will be playing dual roles of being the ’boots on the ground’, while also researching and developing novel ways to eliminate predators.

No-one has ever attempted to completely remove possums, rats and stoats from such a large area of the New Zealand mainland, let alone across such diverse landscape types, from the mountains to the sea.  We expect there to be challenges along the way. We might even need to go back to the drawing board to further refine our methods. There will also be circumstances, like Covid-19 and extreme weather, that may slow us down.  But this mahi is worth doing — eliminating predators will allow the unique and special species that live in the area to thrive.  And, by using our remove and protect approach, once free of predators, there will be no need for large-scale repeated use of aerial toxin in the project area.

PFSW is a massive investment in the future of South Westland. The impact from Covid-19 has had a devastating effect on the livelihoods of people in South Westland. This project won’t just benefit nature — it will also bring social and economic benefits to the region.  ZIP has been based on the West Coast for several years now. Basing ourselves in South Westland not only makes sense in terms of doing our work, but it also embeds us within the local community.

For more information about the project, please visit Predator Free South Westland's website.