On the Thames Coast, around 20 years ago, vigilant locals knew that the local kiwi population was on the verge of collapse. Thames Coast Kiwi Care was formed in 2006 with the mission: “To protect and enhance kiwi populations on the Thames Coast”.
We wanted to ‘hear kiwi calling from backyards again’. This dream has become reality as Te Mātā locals are reporting a significant increase in kiwi foot prints, calls and also sightings over the past few years.
We now have around 350 kiwi in our recovery area!
This is an incredible achievement by our community, with essentially ten times the 2006 kiwi population now present locally.
We’re thrilled to share a short trail camera compilation from the burrow of sires Taringamā and his family. It captures adorable moments from their lives but also worrying has some unwanted cameo appearances from you know who.
This hexmap represents real-time trapping data from our project area. The more red the colour, the higher the number of catches or density of traps.
You can mouse-over the hexagons for breakdowns on species catches. You can also use the top left red menu buttons to display subsets of data: by project, species or trap.
Massive thanks to the smart people at Groundtruth and Trap.NZ for this amazing resource!
We are now approaching Year 2 of this project, made possible by the funding provided by the Waikato Regional Council’s Natural Heritage Fund. The project has been designed around targeting rats and possums in the project area, to support existing DOC200 trap lines that focus primarily around mustelid control, whilst providing a buffer to Public Conservation Land. In the past 18 months, we have installed around 150 AT220 self-setting rat and possum traps along both existing, and newly created trap lines in the TCKC project area spanning over 20km. Trap lines are checked and maintained on a monthly basis by both our Rat and Possum Project Leader, and also our dedicated team of volunteer trappers that undertake their fortnightly DOC200 checks.
The care and effort that goes into maintaining and servicing the AT220 traps is leading to great successes. As of April 2024, the Expansion Project has recorded that 1605 rats and 1575 possums have been removed. That is almost 3200 pests removed that will ultimately aid in protecting our native flora to the benefit of native bird species.
Running alongside the active pest trapping are bird surveys, to help gain an understanding of the existing biodiversity of NZ birds in our project area. Ultimately we hope to collect data on how the control of rats and possums can help bring about an increase in both bird numbers but also the range of bird species recorded in the project area.
Our next step is the further installation of an additional 50 AT220 traps, with their positioning within the TCKC project still in the planning stage.
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