Trap Data:
| Month | Weasel | Stoat | Cat | Rat | H.hog | Possum* | Ferret | Other |
| January | 8 | 3 | 0 | 139 | 1 | 113 | 0 | 3 |
| February | 5 | 1 | 0 | 147 | 1 | 71 | 0 | 3 |
| * Not including AT220 kills Yearly totals: | ||||||||
| Weasel | Stoat | Cat | Rat | H.hog | Possum* | Ferret | Other | |
| 2024 | 19 | 14 | 7 | 644 | 11 | 19 | 1 | 14 |
| 2025 | 24 | 19 | 7 | 1286 | 13 | 747 | 1 | 58 |
| 2026 so far | 13 | 4 | 0 | 286 | 1 | 184 | 0 | 6 |
We have also trapped over 150 possums so far this year. A big thank you to all the volunteers and trustees who help in many different ways to improve the health of our beautiful forest.
In the first week of February a team of trustees and rangers got the x20 Acoustic Bat Monitors out. It is interesting to enter the nocturnal world of the Pekapeka and listen in to their cryptic behaviour. At the end of the month all 20 were retrieved thanks to trustee Simon, and volunteer Candace, along with the rangers. Hopefully the Pekapeka have benefited from the recent rat control efforts and we see this reflected in some way in the new data.
A whole new concept for the Trust is thinking about the trapping of ship rats up in the trees rather than just on the ground. Shout out to volunteer Steve Detlaff for pushing hard and ‘out the box thinking’ about the pest creatures out in the Pukenui Forest. We got out in the Whau Valley area installing new Victor traps with the help of volunteers Ryan and Steve.
We came across a lovely Macrolepiota clelandii, commonly known as the slender parasol or graceful parasol on a manuka tree near to the Whau Valley reservoir.
Photo Credit: Andy Avery
Orbweb spider up close
Photo Credit: Andy Avery
With help from new volunteers we are slowly improving the buffer trap network. Ultimately, Andy’s aim is to have it all covered by volunteers, actively engaged with trapping the landscape surrounding the bush.
Andy doesn’t know if he’s getting better at spotting the spiders and other small creatures in the bush or if there is just more of them than this time last year. Craig also thinks he has seen a lot of spiders, but he’s not sure if this is just down to Andy’s ‘propaganda’!
Tree Fern in the bush
Photo Credit: Andy Avery
Ranger Craig started the month with a varied week in the bush. A moist and atmospheric day in the bush on Monday (see pic) for the annual ABM deployment, hopefully we can get some more possible roosts from the data. Later in the week Andy and Craig, along with volunteer Ryan, helped out Steve in deploying some of his 100 new victor rat traps. It’ll be interesting to see the amount of rats that are trapped from this new trapping technique.
Moody Bush
Photo Credit: Craig Young
The last week of February Craig reported a nice week with plenty of birdsong, regular tomtit sightings, and a few skinks.