Two oil and gas contractors have made a career u-turn into Towards Predator-Free Taranaki, the region-wide project helping native wildlife and plants.
North Taranaki's Mike Avey and Chris Halcombe are currently helping farmers in rural New Plymouth use new trapping technology to remove stoats, as part of a large-scale, rural trial, attempted for the first time in Taranaki.
Stoats are skilled killers, introduced by people in the 1880s, and travel large distances to eat baby birds and eggs.
The rural trial, across 16,000 hectares between New Plymouth and Egmont National Park, is part of Towards Predator-Free Taranaki, helping restore biodiversity by removing rats, possums and stoats from rural, urban and conservation land.
Chris and Mike started contracting to Towards Predator-Free Taranaki in December 2018, diversifying from work in seismic drilling for Taranaki's oil and gas industry.