HALO Whakatāne is pleased to announce the upcoming pest trapline along the Ōhope dunes to the Whakatāne community
Since the Predator Free 2050 vision was launched in 2016 HALO Whakatāne has been installing traps throughout the community. The Ōhope Dunes Trapline, from West End to the Ōhope Golf Course, endeavours to create a safer environment for our native and endemic species living on New Zealand’s Best Beach.
The group is installing approximately 70 DOC200 predator traps which will target stoats, rats, and hedgehogs. The trap boxes were lovingly crafted by HALO volunteers and Kaitiaki Kadet students, with financial support from the Department of Conservation Community Fund.
Ōhope Spit is home to both the banded dotterel and the New Zealand dotterel – which numbers only a couple of thousand individuals nationwide. Rats, stoats, and hedgehogs are also found along the dunes, and pose a serious threat to these and other ground nesting birds.
Locals have said they are seeing a lot of rat activity when they go down to the beach, both footprints and the rats themselves scurrying away.
Ōhope Spit Care Group spokesperson Moira Hanna congratulated HALO Whakatāne on this exciting trapline initiative, and added that rat sightings were a common complaint from residents, but this project would assist greatly in reducing numbers.
“I have had a report from an urban trapper in Harbour Road who has caught ten rats in two months in her HALO backyard trap”.
Residents of Whakatāne will be well aware of the wildlife which is venturing into the urban environment, and it is only with the help of our community that HALO Whakatāne can produce and maintain these predator traplines.
“HALO Whakatāne is more than providing protection for our wildlife, it is complementing and connecting the efforts of community groups undertaking these conservation and restoration projects and bringing them into people’s backyards,” said Bridget Palmer, HALO Whakatāne Community Ignitor.
DOC200 predator traps are the industry standard kill traps for rats, hedgehogs, and stoats. The medium sized stainless steel trap mechanisms are approved by the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee, and kill incalculably fast, providing a humane kill. The wooden trap boxes are built to a standard that are weka proof, and the size of the entrance holes exclude nontarget animals such as ferrets and cats.
F @HALO Whakatāne, W www.halowhakatane.org.nz, E halowhakatane@gmail.com HALO Hub between 11-1 on Thursdays, 35 Quay Street.