Making life easier for community trappers

Extra rabbit jerky and egg protectors are now part of the predator trapping kit.

Through The SOAR Initiative we help New Zealand conservation groups to safeguard our unique environment and allow nature to soar ahead. For the current funding cycle we’re supporting the Whakatipu Wildlife Trust (WWT) with predator trapping work in the Whakatipu basin (the catchment area around Whakatipu-Wai-Māori or Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown). By reducing predator numbers, their goal is to help birds and native wildlife flourish once again.

Thanks to the Trust’s work, the large and mountainous basin around Queenstown and Arrowtown now contains an extensive network of over 4500 traps. And taking responsibility for setting, checking and clearing the traps, then sending the data back to WWT, is an extraordinary team of volunteers and community trapping groups.

The Trust uses NAWAC welfare-tested DOC 200 and DOC 250 predator traps to target ferrets, stoats, weasels and rats in the area. Many of these traps are set above the treeline, meaning volunteers must cover some lengthy distances and tricky terrain to check their trapline.

To help make it as easy as possible for volunteers, the WWT is using Topflite’s SOAR Initiative funding to purchase long life, lightweight bait for their traps. 

In the past, volunteers have been required to collect donated eggs and frozen rabbits from the Trust’s bait depot, then to prepare the rabbits at home by chopping them into pieces. This process is off putting for some, who may not have the space or resources to prepare the rabbits. It can also be messy and weighty to carry across a trapline. The availability of eggs and rabbits has also been subject to fluctuations at times.

“Not all our volunteers have access to an outdoors chopping block or have freezer space for rabbits! Having lightweight, long-lasting bait such as Erayz available for them helps remove a potential roadblock to volunteering and makes trapping more accessible to a wider group of people,” said Anna Harding-Shaw, Executive Officer of the Whakatipu Wildlife Trust.

Combined with a Lotteries grant, SOAR funding has enabled the Trust to purchase a year’s supply of Erayz Jerky Blocks and LureGard Egg bait guards for volunteers to use. Erayz Jerky is dried, salted rabbit, which is lightweight and stays fresh for long periods, meaning it doesn't rot or become fly-blown in the traps. LureGard Egg bait guards can be filled with Erayz and used in place of whole eggs. This portable, reusable product also keeps mice from taking the bait.

“Mice can be a real nuisance in traps,” said Harding-Shaw.

“Our stoat traps are calibrated to go off when a rat or stoat crosses them, which means mice get a free pass and can nip in and steal our bait. Having LureGard eggs to place the Erayz into means the bait stays safe and the LureGard egg also acts as a visual lure to rats and stoats. Win/win!” 

The purchase of these bait additions aims to keep engagement and motivation high among volunteers, who each must be trained to check traplines. It will also make it easier for school and community groups to complete their checks, such as the Liger Leadership Academy pictured below.

In 2024, volunteers completed over 42,000 individual trap checks across the Whakatipu Basin, removing over 12,000 pests from the area. For our native bird species, this is a huge win. By easing the burden for volunteers we hope to see even more wins for native wildlife in the future.

SOAR Initiative funding was also used to purchase a library of Flipping Timmy possum traps for community trapping groups to use as a “possum nightclub”.