Zeroing in – toxic rodents lure last stoats
Monday 9 May 2022Imagine lush landscapes alive with Aotearoa New Zealand’s quirky and unique plants and wildlife. This is the Predator Free 2050 vision but to get there we need new tools. While 1080 operations and trapping networks remove most introduced predators from an area, getting the remaining animals is a challenge. The last stoats can be particularly elusive as they avoid traps and toxins.
But what if the bait was disguised as a rat? Researchers at Zero Invasive Predators (ZIP) believed that toxin-laced dead rodents might be an effective tool to target remaining stoats and stop them reinvading a predator free area.