Figure 1: Tracking rates in the Western Wellington Forests – Johnsonville Park KNE site area. Hover over the charts series to specific results, and click on legend entries to highlight and show/hide series. Use the month checkboxes on the top-right of charts to show/hide data from those monitoring months.
Figure 2: Western Wellington Forests – Johnsonville Park KNE site area, showing the locations of the tracking tunnel lines.
Pest animal control regime: This site has been used to test the efficacy of new pest control techniques. Bait stations for rodent and possum control were installed in 1998 on a 150 m x 150 m grid and were serviced four times a year. Between 2010 and 2012 diphacinone pellet and pindone pellet baits were trialled. Since 2012 A24 Goodnature gas operated rat traps have been trialled at 150 m spacing which was greater than the manufacturer’s recommendation of 100 m spacing. Owing to a failure to consistently control the rat numbers, the spacing of the A24 traps was reduced to 100 m intervals in early 2019. This however failed to control the rat population and the management revert to a toxin bait station control regime. The network is serviced four times per year, at three month intervals, by GW Biosecurity staff.
Pest animal control milestones: Baits containing brodifacoum, feratox and cholecalciferol were initially used, but between 2003 and 2010, brodifacoum cereal pellets were used. After the diphacinone bait trail between 2010 and 2012 and the gas operated rat trap trial between 2012 and 2019, baiting began again in August 2019 with brodifacoum pellets.
Surrounding pest control regimes: The Regional Possum Predator Control Programme is operating to the west of the KNE site.