Governor-General turns rat-catcher
This article was originally written by our Board Chairperson Tim Pankhurst and published by The Post on 13 July 2024. See original article here.
Dame Cindy Kiro (centre) and the Bark Ltd team of Jo Conlon and Johnny Fraser. Photo courtesy The Post/David Unwin
Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro acts as King Charles III’s representative in the realm of New Zealand under a legal instrument termed the letters patent.
That device sets out the Governor-General’s largely ceremonial duties and restricted powers.
Rat-catcher is not one of them.
But Dame Cindy is a keen supporter of Predator Free Wellington’s efforts to rid the city of rats and stoats and weasels and restore native wildlife. Twelve traps were installed in the 12-hectare Government House grounds in mid-2022. The dead rat count has now reached 43 – 11 of those in the past six months, 20 in the past year.
There are also 47 bait stations, checked and refreshed every four to six weeks by the Bark Ltd gardening staff, who also manage Wellington Hospital. They have completed 1128 bait station checks in the two years.
The success of the predator elimination can be heard every night – a ruru/morepork has taken up residence in the grounds.
“In the middle of Wellington it is just so wonderful,” Dame Cindy says, to a backdrop of birdsong on a glorious winter morning this week; crisp, sunny and windless. “We have very noisy kākā too, they make such a racket. I’m incredibly supportive in trying to protect our native species. The only way we can do that is by creating safe spaces where species can thrive – our animals, birds, invertebrates, lizards, flora and fauna.
“Wellington has already demonstrated it is the greenest city in the world in the way it’s reserved that space through a green corridor. It is a wonderful vision for New Zealand being predator free.”
She says Government House bordering the Mt Victoria green belt is such a unique space, being fenced and not accessible to the public, making it ideal for native species preservation.
“We have a responsibility to do that.”
The vice-regal couple’s pet dogs Pebbles, a pug, and Lucy, an excitable schnauzer/pug cross, ignore the birds but love chasing rabbits that nibble the immaculate lawn.
The trees frame the spire of the Cenotaph, sited so that it is also visible from Parliament, a warning to those wanting to go to war of its terrible consequences.
Dame Cindy’s husband Dr Richard Davies is equally supportive of pest eradication. He has trapped possums and rats at Whangārei Heads, a kiwi refuge.
“The only predator we want here is a natural one,” says gardener Jo Conlon, pointing to a Pisonia or parapara tree, commonly called a birdcatcher. Its sticky elongated seeds are caught in birds’ feathers.
Intense Predator Free Wellington and volunteer efforts in the nearby green spaces, and participation by Massey University, the Te Papa satellite facility, Wellington College and Wellington East Girls’ College, are significantly reducing the rat population, which will in turn reduce incursion pressure at Government House.
Groundskeeper Jo Conlon checks one of the traps at Government House. Photo courtesy The Post/David Unwin
With Miramar Peninsula declared predator free, Phase 2 covering 14 suburbs from Kilbirnie across to Ōwhiro Bay and up through the CBD to the harbour is well advanced.
Further south Te Nukuao Wellington Zoo in the middle of the Town Belt is another key part of the pest eradication jigsaw, one that presents unique challenges, where food is plentiful and access is restricted. Bait stations and traps have to be safely located out of reach of animals and tigers, primates and bears do not exactly fit with the use of volunteers.
Staff and private contractors place and monitor DOC200 and Goodnature traps and use the poison bromadiolone. An antidote is available in the unlikely event of primary or secondary poisoning of any of the zoo’s 500-plus animals. There are no possums on site and only three mustelids have been sighted and caught in the past few years. Seven rats were caught in March this year.
The zoo is guided by international ethical wildlife controls aimed at minimising suffering to animals, including rats, and is careful about its language.
Rats and mustelids are “introduced animals” rather than “pests”. Animals are not held in cages or pens or enclosures, but rather in habitats.
“Rats are smart, they have complex social structures,” Wellington Zoo chief executive Karen Fifield says. “We put them here, we’ve got to find a solution. It’s no good blaming the rats.”
But she agrees “they have to be eradicated. They are in the wrong place.”
One of the zoo’s conservation aims is to reintroduce Wellington green geckos as habitat is cleared of predators.
“I would love to have them as common across Wellington as kākā are,” Fifield says.
Native lizards are also vulnerable to cats and the zoo promotes a Safe Cat, Safe Wildlife programme, encouraging responsible pet ownership. Fifield is heartened by a change in attitude towards cat ownership, where people are much less inclined to let their pets roam.
She says the zoo, which is celebrating record visitor numbers, will continue to collaborate with Predator Free Wellington, Capital Kiwi, Zealandia, Department of Conservation and Wellington City Council to make the city a great place for native wildlife to thrive.
Its work includes treating wildlife patients and checking for disease at Te Kohanga The Nest, its animal hospital.
“We will be a good neighbour to our local community and wildlife,” Fifield says.
Posted: 13 July 2024