Bang, Bang! We're off to a good start!

"Don't expect any catches for at least three months" was the advice from Eigill. Apparently, rats and stoats are 'NewPhobic' i.e.: they're super wary of new things in their environment and it can take many months for them to get used to a new trap box before getting curious and brave enough to have a look inside, regardless of the lure of the bait.

It was less than two weeks since we'd built and placed the traps in the Kahikatea Walk so, when Paul Dunn said he was planning to check them on Monday, my thought was the best we could hope for was that there'd been no human interference with them. 

So there was great surprise and excitement when Paul sent through a photo of trap box KW014 with a dead rat in one trap, and a dead stoat in the other.  The picture below (don't look if you're squeamish!) shows how the stoat was attracted by the rat, coming in from the same end and over the top of it before being trying to exit over the second trap. 

Rats, stoats and other pests kill 25 million NZ birds a year.  That's two less to worry about.

Rat and stoat caught in KW014 in the Kahikatea Walk