Big rise in stoat activity reported
Robyn Jones of Collingwood administers the Golden Bay Trap Loan Scheme to private landowners in Golden Bay.
A big increase in anecdotal sightings and trap tallies for stoats across Golden Bay is being reported by many Golden Bay landowners.
Collingwood’s Robyn Jones has for the last three years looked after distribution for the Stoat Trap Lending Scheme, administered through DOC but funded by the Ministry of the Environment. Currently the scheme lends out around 140 traps to around 40 private landowners in the Bay. Robyn began to notice a big increase in the tallies being e-mailed back to her just before Christmas.
“Joyce Wyllie out at Kaihoka got 12 in one month from one trap, whereas she hadn’t caught anything in it for six months previously. That’s the sort of increase we’ve been seeing. This is obviously a good season for stoats.”
A big mast or “fruiting” of the beech forests last summer in the hills behind Golden Bay is thought to be the reason stoat activity has skyrocketed. This mast of tasty beech seeds causes an explosion in mice and rat populations, which in turn draws stoats from near and far to feast on the masses of young, succulent rodents.
Mountain trapline checkers are doing particularly well. Friends of the Cobb caught 14 in their traps this past month. Usually two or three are a good catch. Operation Ark, up the Wangapeka, scored a record 90 along their lines, and Friends of Flora has also reported high tallies.
Community-run trap networks at Milnthorpe Park and Washbourn Reserve, along with extensive private ones such as those at Lone Star Farm, all add to the efforts to reduce stoat numbers in the Bay.
The Mussel Inn has long offered a bounty on stoat tails. Their total tally brought in stands at 767, and you can still get two free handles of tap beer or cider for each tail you take in.
There’s been no masting in the forests this summer, so stoats may well be hungry again later this year, and stoat sightings will go down after this current summer hiatus has been reached. These lean times after masts are when stoats are thought to turn to baby birds for their main fare.
Successive and multiple introductions of live stoats (along with weasels and ferrets) into New Zealand were all made between 1867 and 1897 in an attempt to control the rabbit plague. Mink, the fourth member of the Mustela family, was never brought here. The three other species quickly spread everywhere, although western Nelson and the West Coast have managed to stay largely free of the much larger ferret (475-600mm body length) which prefers drier country (under 600mm rainfall). The weasel is well distributed here but is less often observed, not only because of its much smaller size (200-225mm) but also because of its sneaky habits. Stoats, called ermine in many countries, are easily distinguished by their middling size (325-380mm) and mid-brown or reddish fur with white underparts. Unlike the weasel’s whip of a tail, the stoat’s is bushy and characteristically black tipped, resembling a brush dipped in paint.
The best bait for stoat traps remains a matter of opinion. Some vouch for a highly visual white egg, no matter how old it is, while others say a brown egg is just as good. A handful says it pays to smear peanut butter on the egg. Quite a few vouch for a hunk of salted hare, which pulls in the stoats, especially when it rots a little. Bill Wallace, who monitors a network of traps on his land at Pakawau, reckons nothing beats a freshly dead rat or mouse in the trap box.
“Bang, works every time! They can’t seem to resist them.”
Gerard Hindmarsh
