Wildlife back on islands as rats removed

9th March 2010

An ambitious project to return native wildlife to the eastern Bay of Islands is showing its first signs of success.

Project Island Song aims to restore flora and fauna long since wiped out on the mainland to a cluster of islands between the Russell Peninsula and Cape Brett.

The islands include the 200ha holiday destination Urupukapuka and the scenic Roberton Island, seen in almost every Bay of Islands travel brochure.

The first major step came last  June  with two helicopter drops of rat poison across the islands, coupled with a trapping blitz.

The islands have never had possums but were over-run by rats, giving native birds and reptiles little chance of survival.

Pest eradication projects are common on remote offshore islands but Project Island Song is one of the most challenging ever attempted, because of the islands' mix of private ownership, public use and tourism, plus their proximity to the mainland.

Project co-ordinator Paul Padfield said it was "still early days" but after nine months without rats, the islands' vegetation was showing signs of regenerating.

Large numbers of coprosma seedlings, for example, were emerging and would make a good food source for birds once they matured.

A bird survey earlier this year found North Island tomtits on Urupukapuka Island for the first time, and there had been anecdotal reports of strikingly high numbers of kiwi footprints on the beaches of nearby Moturua Island.

Mr Padfield also expected to see the numbers of shorebirds, like the New Zealand dotterel, to start increasing.

Other birds, such as the saddleback, could not make their own way to the islands so would have to re-introduced.

 There had been a setback, however, with two rats caught in traps on Urupukapuka over summer. They had been sent away for analysis by the Department of Conservation for clues as to how they got on to the island.

As one of the rats had been caught near a DoC campground, it was likely it had come over in camping gear.