Pesky possums beware - the latest ground-breaking possum trap, or should that be skull-breaking, is being tested in Northland an conservationists are hopeful it will help preserve the region's kauri forests and plants threatened by the introduced marsupials.
There are about 30 million possums in New Zealand which munch through around 9000 tonnes of leaves, berries and fruit every night. The first possums were brought to New Zealand in 1837 from Australia.
Conventional possum traps need to be reset after every kill, but the Deportment of Conservation has started installing 321 new multi-kill traps at Trounson Kauri Park, near Dargaville, and a further 333 in Te Urewera National Park.
The Goodnature "Henry" trap for possums are lightweight traps which automatically fire and reset 12 times, reducing labour costs and enabling more money to be spent on more traps.
The traps have already been through a first phase of testing and the Trounson Park trial is the second phase before DoC decides whether to roll them out across the country.
The self-resetting trap trials are part of a $4 million pest control initiative announced by the Green Party and the Government last year and on Friday, Minister of Conservation Kate Wilkinson and Green Party conservation spokesman Kevin Hague put the first of the new traps into Trounson Kauri Park.
"As we've seen in the first phase, these traps are effective at killing possums and helping protect the birds and forests that New Zealanders love," said Mr Hague.
"The 600 new traps installed in Trounson Kauri Park and Te Urewera National Park will hopefully prove the effectiveness of this form of pest control so it can be rolled out nationwide."
Ms Wilkinson said the early indications have been positive.
"The traps are working as intended, and most importantly, killing possums," she said.
"We're now moving to larger scale trials under phase two of the project, which is aimed at determining how successful these traps are at controlling possum numbers."
She said controlling the pests that kill millions of native birds each year and devour seeds, fruit and foliage is the biggest conservation challenge Kiwis have.
"I am hopeful we will see encouraging results from phase two and I look forward to continuing to work with the Green Party on this important initiative," Ms Wilkinson said.
DOC spends more than $20 million on pest control annually, much of it on labour costs as traditional traps must be manually cleared and reset.
Killing machine
Designed by industrial engineers Goodnature, the "Henry" is a gas-powered, tree-mounted, re-setting killing device named after the pioneer in protecting native species against stoats, Richard Henry.
The tree-mounted trap has a CO2 powered piston which is tripped when the target pest enters the trap.
Instantaneously the head is crushed and the dead animal promptly falls to the ground as the trap resets.
The trap is able to reset itself at least 12 times before a service is needed. It is baited with a long-life lure.