Circling Tairua with traps to catch pests

Rat trapping is being laid around the Tairua Golf Course as part of a town-wide effort to protect native species. Photo / Supplied

Tairua Golf Course is the latest to help protect native bird life with the laying of more traps to catch animal predators.

Some 60 per cent of the town of Tairua has been circled, with 169 traps so far in an initiative by Pest Free Tairua.

The aim is to catch rats, stoats and other pests that are killing native species.

It's part of a town-wide initiative instigated by the volunteer group and which is being embraced by others, says Pest Free Tairua's Allie Cotter.

These include the Tairua Residents and Ratepayers, Walk Tairua, individuals and, since the beginning of June, Tairua Golf and Country Club.

From the last six months, the trappers have recorded 95 pests including a ferret, three stoats, four weasels, four mice, 16 hedgehogs and 64 rats.

Tairua Golf Club has always had traps but is welcoming more sponsors of traps around the course.

"To ring-proof our town from rats, stoats and other vermin who kill off our native birdlife, we need to place traps to plug the holes around the golf course," Cottersays.

The traps are checked twice a month – once for replacing eggs and once for adding lure on the eggs.

If anyone is interested in continuing circling Tairua, contact the group at pestfreetairua@gmail.com.

"If you already have a trap, we'd like to know what you're catching, ultimately to include on a counter in town that shows what we're catching."

- To sponsor a trap for the Tairua Golf Club pest control programme, contact info@tairuagolf.co.nz.