Technology has revolutionised the way we (as humans) keep record of our daily lives. Photos and video are now the perpetual wall paper in the background of our lives. Wildlife haven’t quite caught the selfie bug (or have they…), but the sneaky placement of video cameras in the middle of NZ’s wilderness can tell us a lot about the future of our wildlife. This was true for pest control monitoring in the Blue Mountains, West Otago.
Reducing the numbers of rats, stoats and possums was key to protecting endangered mohua and other native wildlife in the blue mountains area. This could be done through aerial 1080 pest control operations, but we wanted to know how effective this method was. So in 2014, scientists from DOC and Lincoln University set out to video the species living in the Blue Mountains before and after a Battle for our Birds aerial 1080 operation.
Setting up a camera aimed at one of the trapping tunnels
Hidden on the forest floor near trapping tunnels, 26 motion sensing, infrared cameras were placed to record the presence of pests, deer and birds. The cameras ran for a number of weeks before, during and after the pest control operations. When wildlife came into the range of the camera, a 30 second video was captured.
Graph showing the number of animals captured on camera before and after the 1080 operation
• The 1080 drop took place at week 14 and monitoring continued for a further 5 ½ weeks.
• For any bird species, we calculated their abundance in the 28 days before the poison operation and in the 28 days following the 1080 operation.
Dr Elaine Murphy was pleased at what the video captured. The footage reinforced the current value of aerial 1080 pest control for protecting our threatened species (especially the mohua) at large scale.
“It’s amazing what activity can be recorded on a camera that we don’t pick up using conventional tracking tunnels. Stoats and rats were regularly recorded on cameras but rats were almost always alone. Stoats visited regularly and were twice recorded in family groups of up to 6 animals.”
So what did this tell us?
We were amazed at how clear the monitoring results were – our usual method (of monitoring tracking tunnels) tells the same story but not quite so precisely.
In total 4792 videos of animals were recorded including huge flocks of finches (hundreds!) feeding on beech seeds. The stats showed no evidence of reduced bird numbers in the 4-weeks after the aerial 1080 operation. The mohua counts before the aerial 1080 operation suggested a decline in mohua numbers from the year before. By contrast, the count after the aerial 1080 operation was the highest since counts began in 2007.
Mohua with lunch. Photo: Leon Berard
After the aerial 1080 drop, the number of cameras recording stoats, rats, mice and hedgehogs was significantly lower. No stoats or rats were recorded the day after the operation or within the 38 days after the operation when the camera trial ended.
For the hunters, the good news was the apparent negligible impact of 1080 baits on the susceptible fallow deer population. That’s the deer repellent at work!
As New Zealand makes progress toward the ultimate goal of becoming predator free by 2050 and powerful field cameras become readily available, there will be more camera analysis possible. Rather than the demise of pests, those cameras will be recording growing native bird populations thriving in our forests.
But 1080 STILL kills indiscriminately, it is a severe inhumane why to control the possums etc. I want our native birds to thrive, however I’m still not convinced its the safe way to go for deer, dogs, fish, the waterways and humans???
It is safe as used to humans unless they are foolish enough to eat baits of deer/pigs recently killed by 1080. It kills about 10% of deer in a treated area. Which is OOK from a Conservation viewpoint as deer do a lot of damage in the forests. It is not safe for dogs that are exquisitely sensitive to them. Solution keep dogs out of treated areas or fit them with muzzles. It is safe in waterways and for fish and invertebrates. There is good science to back up each of these points.
nice blog…very knowledgeable..
Does your “forward by email” link work? I tried to pass the 1080 drop results to my doubting son-in-law but couldn’t get past “email test failed” despite checking all details provided.
Hi Terry,
You’re right, it appears to not be working. We’ll send a request to WordPress to fix it. Meanwhile you can copy the URL from the address bar, paste it in to an email and send it to your son-in-law.
Excellent graphics to explain how and why and a summary of the great results. I look forward to the journal paper. Thankyou.
Thanks for making the effort to inform us.
There are several FRI reports that clearly show that fallow deer have a significant detrimental impact on the vegetation in the Blue Mountains. This is also supported by the exclosure plots on Cattle Spur where the plots are full of palatable species all but absent outside them.
All well and true having a nice animation of what happened. but where is the actual videos and locations of where the cameras were inside the pest control area. otherwise this just looks like an emperor’s new clothes scenario that we are meant to just believe.
Nobody’s forcing you to “believe”, Quintin.
This post explains the type of method used to monitor these things systematically and objectively, both before and after to clearly measure the change (if any) around a point in time when a specific event (1080 drop) happens.
Nobody requires you to trust DOC researchers who do this stuff and then explain the results, but if your preconceived views are so strong that you’ll write off carefully measured evidence on the grounds of it being a huge conspiracy where results have been faked by conspiring employees of a government agency, then chances are *everything* DOC could possibly give you will be written off as corrupt propaganda.
I’d like more than just a media presentation that any school kid doing media at school can whip up. especially since they are using a highly toxic poison that was originally developed as an insecticide and using against manufacturers recommendations for use.
I think a video compiled from the very
same cameras would be a back up for results but there is nothing to back this up. Even collecting up the dead predators again would help to back this up but not even this hs been done.
Animation is not proof.
Its a blog not a research paper, from your comment you would not believe any locations on a map anyway.
Hi Quintin,
This study will be submitted to a science journal in the new year with more details and a map of where the cameras were.
With regards to your comment on it being used against manufacturers recommendations, the label on the concentrated 1080 stock that arrives in New Zealand is done to comply with American requirements. Once the material is in New Zealand, it needs to comply with New Zealand regulations. The Environmental Protection Authority does a risk analysis of 1080 and set stringent conditions for its use in New Zealand. 1080 is manufactured into cereal pellets by Animal Control Products and undergoes further scrutiny by the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines group in the Ministry for Primary Industries to ensure that it complies with relevant requirements for use as a registered vertebrate toxin.
I would hardly call aerially dispersing a toxin “stringent conditions”. I would love to see the complete paper, with the data extending to the full 38 days. Aerial drops of 1080 stops this product complying with Orillion’s requirements as well. Keep out of waterways and remove poisoned carcasses.
After which it is dumped indiscriminately in waterways against manufacturers recommendations and warnings on the product. itself.
Please post New Zealand’s and America’s regulations for 1080.
DOC, what a joke, you drop a deadly toxic poison into waterways everytime its applyied by helicopter,ignoreing what the manufacture says, and help create laws so that its suits your use of it,,recently a family was poisoned by 1080, and this government told the public it did not know what poisoned the family, all the symptoms suggesed 1080 poison,but this was kept from the public.doc have been caught repeatidly lying to the public about the destruction to native animals that 1080 causes, seen it with my own eyes, dead birds…quiet valleys, and NO… birds cannot breed back when you have killed the last of said species from the valley,i1080 kills allmost every animal that eats it ,,,your records should show dead kea ,,dead kiwi,dead rock wren,dead moreporks etc etc…the death list goes on,and doc keeps this from the public,, ,,you do not except evidence that disagrees with anything that doc pro1080 says, its a lazy cowards way of pest control, you drop poison on places that have NO pest problem,simply because “you have been allocated the funds and must spend them”,,,poisoning deer near queenstown and when all the tourists see all the dead deer you turn around and say it was hunters that did it, ..that info comes from a contractor that worked for doc,,, Telling helicopter pilots to try not to drop it on the tops and slips because the kea are getting the baits and dying in large numbers, that info is direct from heli pilot,, doc are liers trying to fool the public, what sort of moron thinks that you can protect species by dropping deadly poison indecrimently all over there enviroment and then expect them not to be effected, this is rediculous to think that for the last 60 years you idiots have been doing this… giving the stupid line that “its the only way” that is pathectic. more like its the only way to keep some contractors and helicopter pilots in work..and line the pockets of the polititions that have shares in the coumpany, its time you lot grew a spine and pulled your head out of the sand and started living in the real world
Wonderful. Are the fallow deer no longer considered a threat to our forests and birds?
Yes, the deer do damage the forests. The hunting community value them as a resource so deer repellent is added to the bait. This is a good compromise, hunting pressure keeps deer damage to an acceptable limit while the poisoning operation removes most of the other threat species.
Peter is right, all deer are a potential threat to forest regeneration because they eat seedlings, but they are not treated as pests.
Recreational hunting keeps fallow deer populations in check and where possible, we uses deer repellent to reduce the by-kill of a valued recreational hunting resource.
I don’t think people realise the damage herbivores do to our flora. Recreational hunting being adequate control on deer, tahr, chamois hares and goats is a myth from recreational hunting lobbies. Doc I hope is not giving up on the flora, it’s great to see the effect of 1080 for birds, but serious work needs to go on mammalian herbivore control as well.
I hope you are aware that we now have Herds of National Significance…lf not, please read up on it.
http://www.doc.govt.nz/about-us/statutory-and-advisory-bodies/game-animal-council/role/
In addition, your concerns have also been raised by the PCE
http://www.pce.parliament.nz/media/1402/game-animal-council-submission.pdf
This means DoC is not really allowed to do anything to them… Whether they like that or not is a different thing. Don’t forget, their official response has to be in line with the ministers/Director general focus for the organisation rather than information/comment trolling by some commenters, so be mindful when you try and criticise people, they may not have the choice to reply openly.
Deer are not a threat to our forests, they are easily controlled by helicopters and ground hunters and they create jobs and it would cost the government nothing to control them, was done in the past for 30 years , but then we have doc who dropped 1080 all through our forests and so a deer with poison in it was thought to have ended up in a shipment of venison for export, so that detroyed the market over seas,over night…. yea thanks to doc ,,, allso water bottling plants pulling out of the west coast because of docs 1080 contaminating the water,…yea thanks doc
Great stuff. Knowledge is king.