Monitoring October

Submitted by Rick Field on Fri, 2011-12-16 00:10
Project: 
Wildlife Monitoring

 

Pest monitoring – Karen Driver

Thank you to everyone that helped out for the possum monitoring and for my usual team for regularly getting out there for the pest monitoring, and Jane for analysing the pest monitoring papers each month.

 

Both the possum and rat monitoring data indicates that the numbers of both species are lower inside the trapping area than outside it, which is encouraging. The mean number of possums inside the trapped area was also down a bit while the number of rats inside the area was down a lot. On the graphs below:

  • Lines A to J are the normal pest monitoring lines that are serviced by the monitoring team - the other lines are the possum monitoring areas of the relevant trapping lines.
  • Line C has been removed from the graphs because the tags were left out for two more nights than the rest, which actually increases the mean number of possums in the trapped area. Results for line C were: 5 possums and 3 rats, it was 4 possums and 11 rats last year.
  • Line F is included as being outside the trapped area because it is currently half in and half out.
  • The results for Line G were not included because the plastic casing over the wax was not removed although there were clear rat marks. The data was taken from tooth marks on wax tags rather than from the normal monitoring tunnel prints. For line G, the results were: 1 possum and 10 rats versus 16 possums and 10 rats last year.
  • Lines B, WF and WG have major possum problems still - worse than last year.
  • Lines WB, WC, WD and ED have all cut possum numbers this year.


The normal rat monitoring data, using the standard monitoring tunnels, is presented in the graph below. Points to note include:
·       The graphs have been updated to include tunnels 1 to 5 of line F in the untrapped area and tunnels 6 to 10 in the trapped area, from Feb 2010 onwards. 


·       This enabled the removal of the separate line F, which tended to be a bit confusing. However, while removing line F does more accurately reflect the results in both areas it unfortunately brings the mean up for rats in the trapped area. 




  • The trapping team have now added three new monitoring lines and these are now displayed as a separate line to avoid skewing the data because they have not been out there as long as the original lines.
  • Monitoring outside the trapped area does not happen every month and did not in August, which is why the blue line does not extend to August. 
  


  
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