February 2021
Friends of Rotoiti Volunteers
have been busy around the village and RNRP.
Catches on all trapping lines have been low since the 1080 project.
FOR volunteers assisted DOC staff in the recent wasp wipeout programme.
FOR volunteers have been assisting DOC staff with the servicing of the remote monitoring cat traps.
FOR volunteers continue with ongoing monitoring of juvenile kaka.
News from DOC Biodiversity Team
DOC Biodiversity team staff
Tom Robinson has joined the team from Pureora. All the positions in the bio team have now been filled.
Max the trainee ranger finished up on the 12th of February to carry on with his studies.
Joe will be with us for another month or so.
Brent Cameron will be helping out the bio team on a casual basis over the next month or so also.
Tracking tunnels
In October after the 1080 operation we ran an extra set of tracking tunnels to assess the success of the operation.
October Rotoiti
Poison - Mean rat tracking per line 0%
Non poison – Mean rat tracking per line 12% ± 5%
October Rotoroa
Poison - Mean rat tracking per line 0%
Non poison – Mean rat tracking per line 20% ± 15%
November Rotoiti
Poison - Mean rat tracking per line 16% ± 9%
Non poison – Mean rat tracking per line 10% ± 4%
November Rotoroa
Poison - Mean rat tracking per line 0%
Non poison – Mean rat tracking per line 10% ± 4%
Mustelids
Rotoiti 0% in October and November
Rotoroa – October 100% in non treatment and 0% in 1080 area.
- November 0% in 1080 area, 41% outside the treatment area.
We are in the middle of the February tracking tunnels and I can send the results through when we get them.
Kaka
It looks like the 5 kaka with transmitters (chicks from 2019) are staying in the park. The beech seeds will continue to be monitored as normal to predict the next mast year and when the kaka will next breed.
Cats
Traps were unbaited for a month as the wasp numbers were high and the bait was disappearing soon after it was put in the traps. Now the wasp control is finished we have been able to rebait the traps and have caught a few in a past couple of weeks.
I’m pretty happy with the way the Celium remote encounter system is working and the way it is managed between Joe and the Friends.
We are currently waiting on an order of 15 more nodes for the Friends traps to be set up.
Read about tuna ( eels), black billed gulls and mistletoe from a recent Lake Rotoiti Newsletter
www.lakerotoiti.school.nz/newsletters January 2021 has three excellent articles
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