X. To airdrop 1080 poison or not

This is the begining of a page on the whole 1080 air-dropped poison issue in New Zealand. It's very much under construction.

Be warned there are some unpleasant images of poisoned deer in this video: Poisoning Stewart Island.

 

But there is some great footage of kiwis - particularly right at the end.

The video below is a much longer and more distressing video about the toll 1080 takes on wild and domestic animals.

See here for discovery that one of the Graf Brothers, makers of the videos above, was convicted bank robber in 1986 to ten years imprisonment

For an opposing view - supported by New Zealand's Department of Conservation  - see here - this is a Joint Federated Farmers and Forest and Bird: Giving Nature a Voice 1080 website.

Trap marker on the Ackers Point path, Stewart Island.
Trap marker on the Ackers Point path, Stewart Island.

This is the Wikipedia site on 1080 usage in New Zealand.

 

It suggests that the massive use of 1080

 

'remains a contentious issue, with the majority of the debate occurring between conservationists and livestock farmers on one side and hunters and animal rights activists on the other.'

The report Evaluating the use of 1080: Predators, poisons and silent forests by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, (June 2011)

is here.

The community-led initiative to trap out ratsa and possum on Ackers Point and around Oban on Stewart Island.
The community-led initiative to trap out ratsa and possum on Ackers Point and around Oban on Stewart Island. (Click for link to extend this to the whole of Stewart Island.)

The Forest and Bird conservation's support for 1080 is explained in this fact sheet.

 

With regard to birds it says the follwing,

 

Because 1080 operations dramatically reduce possum numbers and often kill stoats, rats and deer, they allow native bird populations to recover and then thrive. Research has shown that the nesting success of kereru, tomtits and robins improves considerably following aerial 1080 operations. For example, after 1080 treatment in Pureora Forest, twice as many robins nested successfully as those outside the affected area. Within a year the robin population had increased by 37%, compared to only a 16% increase in the untreated area. Thus, despite some individual birds being killed, the increase in breeding success allows bird populations to bounce back and increase rapidly. The recovery of forest vegetation after possums are killed means nectar, berries and other food sources increase, benefiting bird life.

Of the hundreds of traps I swa on my rambles in New Zealand this was the only one with victim: on Stewart Island
Of the hundreds of traps I saw on my rambles in New Zealand this was the only one with victim. On the Rakiura Track near Lee Bay, Stewart Island
Latest 1080 drop news (August 2014)
Latest 1080 drop news (August 2014 - click for link)

 

To: Milford Sound pages

 

Temperate Rain Forest Tour: Return to Introduction

or take some forest walks in the north of the South Island

or look at plant successions on glacial forelands at Fox Glacier