The SIRCET (Stewart Island/Rakiura Community & Environment Trust) rat traps are covered with corflute covers of various colours. Occasionally a rat will chew small holes but it was a surprise to find one of the Deep Bay traps so trashed...
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A rat with too much time on his hands - this end of the trap is
normally sealed by stapling or cable-tie |
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| Looking down on trap |
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| Close up of the nibbled corflute |
This cover was replaced a week ago but within 6 days it's needing to be replaced as it's almost nibbled through again. We've put out peanut butter bait this time and hoping he'll come in the right end of the trap and get caught!
There's always something new to see on my rat trap lines; at the end of June I came across a dead ruru (morepork), very well camouflaged on the forest floor. I couldn't see any obvious signs of injury and the death was relatively recent so I took some pics and took the body back to DOC for their bird freezer.
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| Dead ruru |
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| Underneath of wing |
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No wonder nothing gets away - the ruru's claws reminded me
of the grab bucket on a crane |
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| Close up of ruru bill and nostril |
SIRCET has purchased some of the A12 Goodnature possum traps and there's one at the start of my Deep Bay 2 trap line. The small CO2 gas cylinder resets the trap after it is set off, repeating up to 12 times before replacement is needed. The traps cost around $150 each and there's some impressive video footage on the
www.goodnature.co.nz website.
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| A12 Goodnature possum trap (white cover) above corflute rat trap |
