Rona cleared of Mice
Great news from the Pomona Island Trust that they have managed to get rid of the mice incursion that prevented them from using Rona Island as a nursery for the Haast tokoeka kiwi. They managed to gain the funding required to undertake an intensive poisoning programme pre Christmas, with bait stations laid out on a 25m x 50m grid pattern over the entire island. Monitoring with tracking tunnels since then has shown no mice tracks but increased tracks/marks made by insect life, a good sign for food stores for the kiwi when they are reintroduced. The Pomona Island Trust is all to aware that they cannot let their guard down as mice could swim to the island or jump off a boat. As ever with these predator free islands, they ask that boaties take extra care not to carry vermin with them when they head to these areas. In the meantime the Trust will keep monitoring, but great work by the team to achieve this outcome.
Posted on: Tuesday, 29 March 2016
