NEWS AND OPINION: Wellington, the capital of New Zealand is waging war on another of their invasive species, the rat. Predator Free Wellington a state backed community which is leading the effort to eradicate rats from the capital of New Zealand. New Zealand is very keen at eradicating invasive species because they do a lot of work on feral cats as well. Unfortunately, they’ve done the work in a very cruel manner which upsets me personally. But I guess that is another story which I have in any case written about before.
In this instance, New Zealand has claimed that invasive species have cost the economy of their charming country almost NZ$10 billion (£15 billion) over the past 50 years; a figure which comes from research led by the universities of Aberdeen and Auckland in conjunction with CNRS in France.
The project referred to relies on funding from local government and national government and indeed the private sector. The federal government is kicking off with an extra NZ$28 million in addition to the tens of millions already used to fund pest control annually.
They claim some success. And there are many people who help such as Meghan Walker who has an obsession with trapping and killing rats. She has a little terrier, rat hunting dog called Rapu to assist her. Terrier dogs can be incredibly committed and vigorous in their unearthing and killing of rats.
Small dogs are much better rat catchers than cats by the way, in case you wondered.
New Zealanders claim that the rat and other invasive species, perhaps the feral cat, for the greatly diminishing numbers of the nation’s beloved symbol, the flightless kiwi, whose population has dropped from 12 million to below 70,000 today.
Meghan Walker has a degree in conservation biology. She is one of many (described as an ‘army’) of New Zealanders whose goal is to make New Zealand rat-free. A very ambitious target. If they achieve it New Zealand will make history.
She said: “Sometimes I can find nothing all day. And then I’ll say I need a rat so they send me somewhere else that’s much more fun.”
She was referring to a trip to Wellington Airport where there are no rats that day. It is 13 minutes from the city center.
As mentioned, there are some success stories. For example, last month the city’s eastern Miramar Peninsula was declared rat-free. It is the home of more than 20,000 people. It’s also been declared free of other predators such as weasels and stoats. They all prey on birds by attacking young in their nests.
A signal of the success is that four weeks ago in the south of Wellington, a mere 5 km from New Zealand’s parliament, two baby Kiwis were the first to hatch in the wild inside Wellington’s boundaries. That’s the first to hatch in 150 years! The volunteers declare it as a signal that the rat population is declining thanks to their efforts.
One key element in the success story is that they encouraged local businesses to put rat bait peanut butter on the counter including at local cafés, as I understand it, to encourage customers to pick up some rat bait after they’ve made their purchase. This method was much discussed which generated more enthusiasm and I guess a team spirit.
Dan Henry, 50, another volunteer said that it “really captured peoples’ attention”.
