“When I worked for DOC the bio control people were well aware 1080 causes rat plagues.” Former DoC Wanaka employee David Bunn
Rat numbers have tripled after a poison drop
By Carol Sawyer
She says the October 2017 1080 drop in the Lower and Upper Hollyford Valleys in Fiordland, has been an unmitigated disaster.
The area had never been 1080 poisoned before.
For many years, there has been a volunteer trapping programme in place around Gunn’s Camp. Ninety-eight traps are set along approximately 20 kms of the Hollyford Road, back into the bush a bit, from Marian Corner to Humboldt Creek and for a couple of kilometres beyond the end of the road.
For years, these traps have averaged a total of 6 to 12 rats every three weeks, all up.
After the 1080 drop, the next couple of trap clearances yielded very little. This is what one would expect immediately after an aerial 1080 drop.
However, three weeks ago, 67 traps yielded TWENTY rats. This time last year, before the poisoning, only 8 rats were cleared from the whole 98 traps.
1080 poison causes rat plagues – an initial drop in numbers followed a few months later by a plague. DoC know this.
These latest figures are on the DoC files, but they will probably not release them to the general public.
1080 – devastation for birds, deer and trout
BIRDS : Gunn’s camp in the Hollyford was a Kaka haven. Twenty to forty Kaka were regularly seen there, and as many as fifty were counted on one relatively recent occasion.
Moreporks abounded. One Morepork ( Ruru ) used to sit behind a generator shed there, and when the generator was turned off every night it then became very vocal.
It was a loved ‘character’ of this special place.
There has not been a Morepork or a Kaka seen or heard since the 1080 drop. (The “generator” Morepork was obviously killed by the poison.)
Fantail numbers have also taken a major dive, as the insect population has, of course, decreased.
DEER: A local helicopter company has had reports recently, from hunters it transports into hunting areas that deer numbers are ‘low to non-existent’ since the drop. Click on the following and learn how to find deer hunting spot.
TROUT: It is reported that a big pond in the Hollyford River, above Gunn’s Camp, which always had trout, now has none.
Rats set to keep proliferating
The rat plague that is to be expected after a 1080 drop, of triple and even quadruple previous rat numbers, (not that the Dept of Conservation will publicly admit to this), has started.
In early March, 2018, the traps were cleared and contained 32 rats.
Interestingly, some of the traps had two rats in them, which is apparently unusual.
The tally 3 weeks later was 24 rats. That equates to 54 rats in a period of 6 weeks, whereas prior to the drop one could have expected, at the most,12 to 24 rats to be caught in that time.
Rats have NEVER been caught in these numbers before in this area!
Add to this the fact that the rats being caught recently are all young rats and this means that a veritable rat plague is on its way, and by the time the anniversary of this virgin 1080 drop comes around this October, a rat plague is what people in the area will be witnessing!
DOC = Drop Only Chemicals?
Yes and when it went on Mount Taranaki we had a plague of rats, then stoats I was working at the mountain house at time and saw many stoats and many close to the mountain house.
Now we know who the sensible one is here. Great post!
I think this is preaching to the converted???.I tried commenting on a Facebook page called 1080 doing the job you don’t.
I was abused for my findings by some pretty nasty women mostly and when I replied in a like fashion I was told that all comments are vetted and insulting letters are not tolerated…
Seems they can dish it out but cannot take it.
They are all couch potatoes that just mouth off other peoples opinions so I did not persist.
I think 1080 is just a tool and has its uses with very controlled use such as hand application..
We have said for years the birds like Robins are killed by it and were shot down but since cabinet ministers etc are shareholders in the companies that make it ,its a no brainer really…
Seriously, Lou Sanson told me he is an avid user of the outdoors…..betcha Lou doesn’t go any where near a 1080 drop…..yet expects us, hunters, fishers and bush men, that 1080 is doing the job in the ” Battle for the Birds”…….Tuis ad…(there’s a bird)….right there. Forests have become silent, and DoC do not give a fat rats…perhaps they think if the birds are killed they’ll just replace with cage reared birds and she’ll be right 🙁
Surely the dopey DoC, Kea Conservation Trust, Forest and Bird and their supporters are not so stupid they don’t understand, there are plenty of scientific studies to show that rat plagues occur after 1080 poison drops, maybe they have trouble reading I think it’s called dyslexia.
Department of Conservation are nothing of the sort are they? DOC Biodiversity is manifesting it’self into the world leading
pusher of all toxins known to man and can hold it’self up as the main instigator leading to the demise of all native birds and insects throughout Aotearoa! The likes of Lou Sanson and his cohorts would not walk freely about in the likes of Westland I’ll bet!