Big success for pest control work in the Hunua Ranges

Auckland Council’s biggest ever pesterer operation has chalked up a significant conclusion for the vulnerable kōkako with dozens of recent chicks hatching within the Hunua Ranges this summer.

The post operational report on the 2015 1080-based pesterer management programme was bestowed to last week’s Regional Strategy and Policy Committee. It recapped the rationale for the project, however it absolutely was distributed and results from a comprehensive watching programme.

Committee chair council member George Wood says the widespread reduction of predators and intensely promising species watching results is encouraging.

"A very little over a year past we tend to had an enormous problem; the Hunua Ranges was abundant with rats and possums and our bird populations were being thus heavily predated that no kōkako were fledging and adult birds were being attacked.

"This well-executed programme saw the in no time knock down of pesterer animals and equally fast recovery of our precious species," he says.

Auckland Council multifariousness Manager Rachel Kelleher says pesterer associate degreeimals ar at an rock bottom with rat and possum densities considerably reduced across the operational space.

"When we tend to began, rats were following at ninety one.6 per cent saturation across the ranges and possum numbers were high.

"Post operational watching has been very positive. pesterer species have born dramatically with possums following between zero.25 per cent and one per cent, and rat densities between zero and one.03 per cent.

"Species watching is additionally a powerful indicator of success and that we have had thirteen kōkako chicks fledging from six monitored pairs to date and a few of those pairs ar already nesting once more.

"With this high success rate among the six monitored pairs, we tend to estimate there may well be over a hundred fledgings from the fifty five pairs within the managed space.

"Hochstetter’s frogs ar still gift, vegetation is sick and that we ar close to undertake long-tailed bat surveys," says Ms Kelleher.

Cr Wood acknowledges the input of the many different agencies, teams and partners and also the important work the operational team did aboard mana whenua.

"The Hunua Ranges and Kohukohunui ar important to seven iwi with social group ties to the world. we tend to ar terribly happy with the link that developed between council and mana whenua as a results of this project," he says.