Huka Trapping Update December 2023
Welcome to the December 2023 Huka Trapping News
Let’s begin with some exciting news. We have received grants from Contact and Craters of the Moon Trust to replace the fifty traps lost in Gabrielle. You will soon see traps appearing in the park on new and existing tracks as we get our trapping project back on track!
Big thanks to Contact and Craters of the Moon.
34 pests have been caught in the last month including 1 stoat.
New from the Bike Taupō Committee is that Huka Trapping will now operate in similar way to Kids Bike Taupō with an allocated budget and aligns closely to what we advocate for, tracks, trees and traps!
The picture below shows 20 new DOC 200 traps built locally by Call of the Wild.
New DOC 200 traps built locally by Call of the Wild
Our trail cameras show the area north of Huka Falls on the Aratiatia track has long been party central for pests and we have put a big effort into reducing predators there.
Trail camera recordings in the last month have shown huge improvements.
Below are clips from a recent email from Margaret our trail camera / surveillance guru:
Possum finally caught!
The possum removed from the Flipping Timmy yesterday morning had visited the traps on 6 occasions over the last 28 days - at one point it even appears to have put its head inside the Timms trap. There are no images of it triggering the camera but it was probably finally caught on 9 Dec!
There was also a visiting cat through the night of 28 and 29 Nov.
There were only a few mouse prints on the rodent tracking card, and I was planning to send you an email to congratulate you on no rats but! On 18 Nov a young rat triggered the WL camera. The DOC 200 trap was not within the vision field at that stage. There was still peanut butter lure remaining on the tracking card which indicates it was a solo rat that hasn't revisited the trap location.
And later:
When I look more closely at the tracking card - the prints are weta footprints - not mice as my previous email.
Weta prints are and excellent - indicates low rat numbers.
Lots of people have commented on the prolific bird life but this is a really good indication that we are making progress!
Possum finally caught!