Mamaku Forest is Department of Conservation land and Canopy Tours holds a concession to operate their adventure eco-tour company in the forest. The company has been built on conservation values and has worked closely with DOC from day 1. A percentage of all admission fees are used to fund the trapping programme and initially traplines were laid over 50 ha of the forest. On the very first night of trapping, the single-kill traps caught 169 rats and 45 possums. All monitoring of the traplines is done by Canopy Tours staff and an added bonus is that it helps provide work for guides during the tourist off-season.
Maintaining the single-kill traps is back-breaking work and in October 2015, 450 Good Nature self-resetting traps were laid over 100 ha of forest, meaning 20% of Mamaku Forest is now managed for predators. The eventual aim is to take that figure to 100%. Having resetting traps reduces labour costs in checking traps. Nevertheless, Gary estimates it cost the company $100,000 to trap 100ha.
There was no pre-baiting of the self-resetting traps to entice predators to them. The new traps were live working from when they were first laid. On the first night 145 rats and around 30 possums were caught. With those predator numbers, it’s no wonder that the trapping programme is making a visible difference to Mamaku’s canopy and to the native wildlife that live there.
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