{"id":573380,"date":"2025-11-16T04:13:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T04:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/573380\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T04:13:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T04:13:15","slug":"reinvasion-is-inevitable-joy-over-zero-possums-in-wainuiomata-short-lived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/573380\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Reinvasion is inevitable&#8217;: Joy over zero possums in Wainuiomata short-lived"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4KDVMLU_Possums_trail_cam_footage_JPG\" width=\"1050\" height=\"590\" alt=\"A possum caught on camera.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nA possum caught on camera.<br \/>\nPhoto: Supplied \/ GWRC\n<\/p>\n<p>A recent pest control operation in Wainuiomata momentarily knocked the possum population down to zero &#8211; the lowest result recorded in the area for 20 years.<\/p>\n<p>Greater Wellington Regional Council carries out aerial 1080 drops in the area every five years. This latest occurred on 15 August.<\/p>\n<p>Director of delivery Jack Mace said its wax tag monitoring system detected zero possums &#8211; a new record, after the previous low of 0.1 percent recorded after a 1080 operation in 2005.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s very rare that we achieve almost complete elimination like this in a 1080 operation,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It was well planned and executed by our pest animals team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But the results were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/national\/576465\/greater-wellington-council-wants-people-to-stop-adopting-possums-as-pets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">expected to be short-lived<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We know results like this never last forever &#8211; reinvasion is inevitable,&#8221; Mace said. &#8220;But what we can do is keep knocking possums and rats down to give the forest and birds a break.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He explained 1080 was a safe and effective tool for managing pests, and there were no traces of it recorded in water samples taken from waterways in the area after the drop.<\/p>\n<p>The process was aided by trail cameras, installed as part of the council&#8217;s new zero ungulate programme, which showed the operation had also reduced the numbers of stoats and feral cats.<\/p>\n<p>The next step would be to cut down the number of larger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/ldr\/577926\/wild-deer-plunder-pasture-plants-and-profits-in-westland\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pests like deer, goats and pigs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Mace said while possums, feral cats and stoats were regularly controlled using 1080 and trapping, the council was concerned about increasing deer, goat and pig populations which had &#8220;cleared out&#8221; the forest ground cover and understory.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The canopy is relatively healthy; however a forest ecosystem needs all levels &#8211; ground cover, understory and canopy &#8211; to thrive. The zero ungulate programme will see a significant increase in pest animal control and an extension of the ungulate-proof fence to prevent reinvasion,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The aim of the project is to remove ungulates and keep them out.<\/p>\n<p>The Wainuiomata Water Collection Area is home to northern r\u0101t\u0101 and rimu trees left untouched by historic logging. Mace called them &#8220;jewels in the crown of lower North Island forest&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This area is precious and it&#8217;s our role to protect it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/radionz.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=211a938dcf3e634ba2427dde9&amp;id=b3d362e693\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, <b>a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A possum caught on camera. Photo: Supplied \/ GWRC A recent pest control operation in Wainuiomata momentarily knocked&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[1816,9409,12,196,10975,10973,10974,70,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-573380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-podcasts","12":"tag-public-radio","13":"tag-radio-new-zealand","14":"tag-rnz","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115557433806000742","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}