Fieldays 2017: Building a better rat trap

Department of Conservation director general Lou Sanson sets up a Goodnature trap with Rotorua Canopy Tours conservation manager Gary Coker. Photo/Supplied

A longer lasting rat lure will help farmers save time and money, according to a Rotorua eco-tourism company that says the technology has been the turning point in making conservation sustainable.

Rotorua Canopy Tours will team up with automatic trap company Goodnature at next week's Fieldays to promote the benefits of humane self-resetting kill traps and Goodnature's Automatic Lure Pump technology.

The zipline tour company says the Automatic Lure Pump means it can do twice the conservation work in half the time with a 90 per cent reduction in maintenance cost per hectare.

Goodnature national key account manager Sean O'Brien said the development of the Automatic Lure Pump had reduced trap checking from every month to just twice a year, as it steadily delivered fresh lure over a six-month time period. The lure contained no poison, so there was zero risk of secondary poisoning to native species or pets.

"Rats are attracted into the A24 trap by our chocolate formula lure and as they push past the trigger a pressurised striker fires into the back of their head, killing them instantly and humanely.

"Within seconds the trap resets itself and the pressurised CO2 gas canister that powers the trap provides up to 24 strikes over six months."

"If the pied piper was a nerdy scientist he would have made Goodnature lures - they are full of the pest's favourite foods and smells suspended in a stable paste."

Rotorua Canopy Tours, which provides guided zipline tours through native Department of Conservation forest, said it had committed more than $300,000 on removal of rats, possums and stoats since 2012. In the last three years more than three tonnes of pests had been eradicated

Managing director James Fitzgerald said they started using Goodnature traps in 2015, having learned some serious lessons from their earlier conservation efforts.

"We started with a single-action trapping network for 50 hectares in 2013, and hauled out 169 rats and 14 possums in our first night, and over 800 animals in the first week.

"Ongoing trapping rounds revealed an unrelenting tide of re-invasion and we soon realised that our approach was unsustainable - the limitation was how much time we could dedicate to putting staff on the ground rather than in the canopy with customers.

"We used to spend two days refreshing our traps across 50 hectares. We now do double that area in five hours which means it's a more efficient use of staff time."

O'Brien says Goodnature's vision is to enable all New Zealanders to play a part in protecting our threatened native species so they can thrive and flourish free from the threat and destruction of introduced pests.

"We fully support the government initiative and believe New Zealand can be free of possums, rats and stoats by 2050."

Those visiting the Rotorua Canopy Tours and Goodnature booth at Fieldays will be able to talk with both operators about their conservation experience, how they can use Goodnature traps for their farm, lifestyle block or home, as well as buy traps and go into a prize draw to win traps and zipline tours each day.