Remove and Protect in action: Eliminating predators in the Perth River valley Background Following discussions with DOC and Te Rūnanga o Makaawhio in late 2017, a 12,000 hectare site in the Perth River valley, South Westland, was chosen as the first landscape scale area to develop the Remove and Protect approach. Our goal was to eliminate possums, and potentially rats and stoats, from the site, and then protect the site in perpetuity.
Predator removal operation We carried out the initial predator removal operation during autumn/winter 2019. The operation followed the ‘1080 to Zero’ methodology developed by ZIP. It was carried out in two phases, each consisting of two pre-feeds of non-toxic bait followed by a single application of toxic bait. Bait was applied across all predator habitat within the field site, in such a way as to leave no gaps in coverage.
14 RE M OV E A N D P R OTECT IN ACTIO N
The first phase was completed in April 2019, and the second was completed in July 2019. The operation also incorporated a range of measures to mitigate potential risks to kea. More information about the operation, and the associated kea risk mitigation measures, is available on our website, zip.org.nz, and in our 2018–19 Annual Report. Following the predator removal operation, we used our network of 142 lured trail cameras, along with approximately 3,000 peanut butter-lured chew cards (replaced every 4–6 weeks) at 20 metre intervals along all routes within the area, to detect any survivors of the operation. BELOW:
The final resident possum in the Perth River valley, seen on camera shortly before it was caught in a remote-reporting cage trap (pictured, left)