Wanted: somebody ready to take the rat bait

By ANNE BESTON environment reporter

Calling private island owners who want their very own population of Polynesian rat: the Department of Conservation may need you.

DoC has won the right to dump millions of rat bait pellets on one of New Zealand's most important wildlife reserves, Little Barrier Island, to eradicate the Polynesian rat kiore.

But there is a hitch. It has to find the rats a new island home in the general neighbourhood if that is what local iwi want.

Whangarei-based Ngatiwai has fought against removal of kiore from Little Barrier for more than 10 years because they are regarded as taonga, or treasure.

So while Auckland Regional Council-appointed commissioners gave DoC the go-ahead for the $580,000 rat campaign, they imposed a condition that some be rescued and moved to a nearby island.

But that would be illegal, said DoC communications manager Warwick Murray.

"It's a bit difficult unless a private landowner would be prepared to take them," he said. "Unless the minister makes formal provision, pests can't be released on to public conservation land."

The rats already inhabit nearby Mauitaha Island, one of the Hen and Chickens group, but transferring more from Little Barrier would still be illegal, Mr Murray said.

Ngatiwai Trust Board spokesman Terry Mita said the tribe would probably hold DoC to the condition but only if everyone agreed on how it should be done.

"We would be happy with that as long as how the transfer takes place is talked about between both parties," he said.

DoC's plan to drop 55 tonnes of rat bait on Little Barrier by helicopter to wipe out the rats has split the ranks of conservationists and environmentalists

Friends of the Earth and Auckland University professor of environmental management John Craig opposed it while many leading conservationists and scientists were in favour, including tuatara expert Professor Charles Daugherty of Victoria University.

Tuatara, presently kept in a "tuaterium" on the 3000ha island, could be released once the rats were gone, DoC said.

Giant weta and the endangered seabird Cook's petrel were also in danger of extinction without eradication, according to DoC.

But Professor Craig disputed that, saying little information was provided by DoC to back its claims. Like Ngatiwai, he wants the rats controlled, not killed off.

"I think we have to ask the question is a piece of our history totally worthless?" he said.

Friends of the Earth spokesman Bob Tait said DoC had not done its homework on the poison plan."They are not even going to do trials before this massive operation," he said.