Chris traps all across Hataitai and Roseneath, and he also runs tunnel building at the local Menzshed
Chris receiving a volunteer award from Deputy Mayor Laurie Foon in 2023At 69 years young, Chris Hare jokes that he was ‘released from paid employment’ by his lovely wife Anne and keen to get stuck into supporting more of the great work happening around the local Hataitai community.
Already chair of the Hataitai Community House, Chris went along to a trap building workshop being held by local trapping group Mt Vic Backyard Trappers. He found he ‘got a little bit passionate about the predator free stuff’.
Chris started off with a few traps in his backyard and was soon helping to service the traps of elderly neighbours. Chris’ trapping efforts expanded across the suburb and before long, he was checking the traps for 50 different houses in Hataitai and Roseneath! ‘It became a bit of an addiction, catching all these rodents,’ he says with a laugh.
Things have come a long way since leaving a plate of milk out for the hedgehogs in the Hutt Valley in the 60’s, and when he first moved to Hataitai in 1999, Chris wasn’t aware of how big the problem of rats really was. ‘That’s changed over time, now people are excited about predator free’. Having caught over 300 rodents a year for five years, and with the Predator Free Wellington team now actively eliminating predators in Hataitai, Chris says people are noticing the birds and the lizards. ‘The first change was seeing more birdlife coming back with rat catches dropping off… and the Phase 2 project has really helped. Each year I’ve noticed more kererū turning up regularly and kākā are everywhere in Hataitai. I see and hear them virtually on a daily basis. That was a pipe dream five years ago.’
Chris interrupts himself to point out a kākā flying overhead, right on cue!
‘I’ve always had a social conscience,’ says Chris, and predator free is ‘making a positive difference in society – everyone’s got to know me as the rat man’. So much so that when our Predator Free Wellington team arrived to start installing and servicing the network of traps and bait stations across the suburb, residents would say that they were already receiving this service!
The contribution doesn’t end with trapping. In 2022, Chris was instrumental in reinvigorating the local Menzshed and set up tunnel building as a regular activity. The Menzshed is open to anyone in the community and Greater Wellington area. ‘It’s been a great way to meet new people, people from different backgrounds, especially for retired folk like me,’ says Chris. The local Menzshed takes the leftover materials from regular trap building workshops put on by Predator Free Wellington, and any other retired fence palings or donated timber, and puts together the rest of the trapping tunnels – completing over 250 tunnels and counting! This not only keeps Predator Free Mt Vic well stocked, but also ensures community trapping groups across the city have the supplies they need.
It’s evident that the social aspects of the predator free realm is one of its biggest drawcards. After dropping off the latest stash of freshly built tunnels to our Predator Free Wellington depot, Chris is off for a weekend trapping at Blue Duck Station in the Whanganui National Park with fellow community trappers. It’s as if the traps across the steep, suburban hills of Hataitai weren’t quite enough of a challenge!