JOHN INNES1, BRUCE WARBURTON2, DALE WILLIAMS1, HAZEL SPEED3 and PHILIP BRADFIELD4 5 1 Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd, Rotorua, New Zealand. Current address: Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd, Private Bag 3127, Hamilton, New Zealand. 2 Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd, P.O. Box 31011, Christchurch, New Zealand. 3 Department of Conservation, P.O. Box 1146, Rotorua, New Zealand. 4 Department of Conservation, P.O. Box 38, Te Kuiti, New Zealand. LARGE-SCALE POISONING OF SHIP RATS (RATTUS RATTUS) IN INDIGENOUS FORESTS OF THE NORTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Summary: This paper describes the impact of nine poison operations on ship rats in four areas (35 ha to 3200 ha) of North Island forest. Poisoning with 1080, brodifacoum, or pindone killed 87-100% of rats, based on trapping and tracking-tunnel indices. Rat populations took 4-5 months to recover. Operations to protect nesting birds should therefore coincide with the onset of nesting and be repeated each year, although not necessarily with the same methods. Population reduction declined each year at Mapara, King Country, during three annual 1080 operations which used the same lures and baits, but remained high at Kaharoa, Bay of Plenty, where poison toxicity was higher, non-toxic bait was pre-fed, and poisoning methods varied each year. Mouse tracking rates increased in poisoned forests 3-6 months after poisoning if the initial kill of rats exceeded 90%, peaked 7-9 months after poisoning, then declined to pre-poison levels. Future research should focus on how prey and non-prey species within a forest community respond to a temporary reduction in rat numbers, and on methods to maintain low rat densities after initial knock-down. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Keywords: ship rats; Rattus rattus; mice; Mus musculus; indigenous forest; population control; poisoning; sodium monofluoroacetate; brodifacoum; pindone. Introduction The ship, roof, or black rat Rattus rattus (L.) was been the high cost, the rapid reinvasion (Innes and introduced into New Zealand last century, and is Skipworth, 1983) and a lack of clear conservation now a widespread pest in indigenous forests. Ship objectives for undertaking the control at all (Innes, rats eat seeds and invertebrates (Beveridge, 1964; 1990). Best, 1969; Daniel, 1973; Innes, 1979; Gales, 1982; R. rattus is an important cosmopolitan Meads, Walker and Elliott, 1984), lizards (Whitaker, commensal rodent pest, damaging crops both in the 1978), and birds and their eggs (Atkinson, 1973, field and in storage throughout the temperate and 1985; Innes, 1990), and perhaps compete with some tropical regions of the world (Prakash, 1988a). native animals for food. The impact of their However it is widespread in indigenous forest only predation on mainland prey populations is little in New Zealand and on other islands which lack an understood (Moors, 1983; King, 1984), but they are indigenous rodent fauna. The control operations contributing directly to the demise of North Island described here are unusual in a world setting in that kokako, Callaeas cinerea wilsoni (Bonaparte) (J.R. they target ship rats as threats to other fauna, rather Hay, 1981, unpubl. report; J. Innes, unpubl. data) than to crops. Also, New Zealand is apparently the and perhaps other declining endemic bird species only country in which baits have been aerially with low reproductive rates (Moors, 1983). distributed to kill this species; aerial bait distribution Previous attempts to control ship rats on the was used against mice in crops in Australia mainland have been confined to small areas of less (Saunders, 1983). than 5 ha, either to protect nesting birds or to This paper reports on the first large-scale eradicate animals coming ashore from fishing boats control operations against ship rats in mainland (Hickson, Moller and Garrick, 1986). Poisoning has, forests, undertaken mainly to protect nesting North however, eradicated ship rats from five New Zealand Island kokako. We also assess how aerial poisoning islands, the biggest of them Somes Island at 32 ha with 1080 (sodium monofluoroacetate) for control of (Veitch and Bell, 1990). Disincentives to more brushtail possums Trichosurus vulpecula (Kerr) frequent or larger-scale control on the mainland have affects ship rat populations. This method of possum New Zealand Journal of Ecology (1995) 19(1): 5-17 ©New Zealand Ecological Society 6NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, VOL. 19, NO. 1, 1995 control has been widely used since the 1950s, and Mapara and Kaharoa Forest (Bay of Plenty) will continue in the foreseeable future. Ship rats are were both extensively logged for podocarps and known to be killed by possum 1080 baits, since post- some tawa, Mapara first before the second World poisoning searches have recovered dead rats (E.B. War and again in the 1950s, and Kaharoa in the Spurr, pers. comm.). Also, bait acceptance trials with 1980s. However, forest structures at both places are “Mapua” cereal baits containing rhodamine dye largely intact, although the remains of old haulage showed 100% acceptance by rats in Northland tracks are still present as grassed logging roads. forests (M.D. Thomas, unpubl. data). Finally, we Untreated areas in which rat numbers were examine the response of mice to the poisoning monitored to determine natural abundance changes operations, since initial operations suggested that the during the period of poisoning were usually in density of mice, Mus musculus, increased after rat forests adjacent to the poisoned areas (Table 1). and possum poisoning. These were always chosen so that vegetation and topography were similar to that in the poisoned Study areas blocks, and were sufficiently distant or isolated by pasture or river gorges that rat movement between The four poisoned areas (Kaharoa Forest, Mapara, blocks was very unlikely. Pikiariki Ecological Area and Makino) and five non- treatment blocks are shown in Fig 1. All were in the central North Island and had similar vegetation. Methods Tawa (Beilschmiedia tawa) was the dominant canopy tree. (Plant nomenclature follows Allan, The operations described here span a decade, and 1961, and Connor and Edgar, 1987). The abundance involve a range of control and monitoring methods. of emergent podocarps such as rimu (Dacrydium Techniques were often changed from one operation cupressinum), miro (Prumnopitys ferruginea) and to the next, in an effort to increase kill success, matai (Prumnopitys taxifolia) varied from high at standardise monitoring procedures and to reduce Pikiariki Ecological Area (EA) in the Waikato to costs. Table 1 lists for each poisoning operation low at Mapara Wildlife Management Reserve (King (clustered by location) the area covered, sowing Country). Other common canopy trees were kamahi method, toxin and its concentration, bait, monitoring (Weinmannia racemosa), rewarewa (Knightia methods and untreated block location. Rat and excelsa) and hinau (Eleaocarpus hookerianus). The mouse populations were mostly monitored by kill- understorey vegetation at Moki and Makino trapping or tracking in paired poisoned and non- (Taranaki) was severely depleted by goats (Capra treatment blocks to derive indices of abundance. We hircus L.) and possums, but was diverse elsewhere. assumed that these indices directly reflected actual Common understorey or valley canopy species were population densities. Footprint-tracking indices in mahoe (Melicytus ramiflorus), pigeonwood each pair of blocks were always taken (Hedycarya arborea), supplejack (Ripogonum simultaneously to allow for the effects of weather scandens), wineberry (Aristotelia serrata) and the and other variables on rat activity, although ship rats treeferns Dicksonia squarrosa, Cyathea smithii and are active even on wet nights (Innes and Skipworth, C. dealbata. 1983; S. Hooker and J. Innes, unpubl. data). Some poisoning operations described in this paper were deliberately targeted at either ship rats or possums, while others targeted both species together. When both were controlled to protect nesting kokako, operations were undertaken later in the year (September-October) than is usual for possum control alone (June-August). This timing shift was so that control coincided with the onset of kokako breeding in November. Ground poisoning, Pikiariki EA, 1982-83 Talon 50 WB (ICI Crop Care, Nelson, New Zealand) poison baits were placed in 40 cm long cardboard ‘A-frame’ tunnels which were wired to the ground to prevent disturbance by possums. Mean distance Figure 1: Poison and non-treatment block study areas in between tunnels was 31 m. Three hundred and central North Island. thirty-nine tunnels were placed in the 35 ha poison INNES, WARBURTON, WILLIAMS, SPEED and BRADFIELD: SHIP RAT POISONING OPERATIONS 7 block, laid out in 22 parallel lines with 10-18 tunnels occasions at about 5 day intervals (range 3-8 days); per line. One bait was put in a tensioned wire holder the last bait replacement was on 22 March 1983. in each tunnel on 24 January 1983. Baits were Relative rat numbers were monitored with checked and, if necessary, replaced on seven tracking tunnels in the poison block and an untreated Table 1: Locality, date, area, poisoning method, toxin, bait, monitoring method and non-treatment block of nine poisoning operations monitored