Via RadioNZ

1080 poison will be dropped over hundreds of thousands hectares this winter as part of the largest ever pest control operation in New Zealand.

The government has today announced $20.7 million of new operating funding as part of the 2015/16 budget.

Conservation Minister Maggie Barry said the country's largest pest control operation was being conducted to fight against the rise in the pest population expected over the winter months which threaten native wildlife.

Via Newstalk ZB
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New Zealand's largest ever pest control operation will be launched this winter in an effort to protect the country's vulnerable birds.
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In a pre-Budget announcement at the National Party conference in Auckland today, Conservation Minister Maggie Barry said $20.7 million in funding would be allocated to Battle for our Birds 2016.

As the Department of Conservation gears up for another large pest-control operation Samantha Gee finds out if the last one worked and what the future of predator control looks like.
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A small yellow insect-eating bird with a loud melodious call is what first drew Graeme Elliott into the world of New Zealand's native birds.

Elliott, a self-confessed "nerdy little birdy kid" was raised in Christchurch and spent family holidays in Nelson where he remembers climbing Mt Arthur to look across the huge expanse of Kahurangi National Park, and wonder what was out there.

Potential "rodent plagues" across the country may prompt more large-scale drops of controversial poison 1080, just two years after the most wide-scale drop in New Zealand history.
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Early indications from the Department of Conservation (Doc) suggest that 2016 will be another beech mast year, in which seeds from flowering beech forests fall to the ground, attracting large numbers of rats and stoats.

The last mast, in 2014, was a one in 10-15 year event, and led to rodent invasions in Arthur's Pass and Nelson city. Masts typically occur every two to six years.

DoC scientist says result helped breeding birds but is disappointed some pests survived.

A major 1080 poison offensive succeeded in wiping out 95 per cent of rats and 85 per cent of stoats in targeted forests around the country, but the result was still below what a Department of Conservation scientist was hoping for.

As part of a $ 21 million project dubbed The Battle for our Birds, DoC staff launched 27 aerial pest control operations between last August and February over hundreds of thousands of hectares of beech forest, mainly in the South Island.

Monitoring studies show that targeted pest control operations last summer have led to record survival rates for short-tailed bats in the Eglinton valley in Fiordland.
DOC undertook a coordinated pest control programme in the Fiordland National Park valley last spring to combat a beech seed-fuelled rat and stoat plague over the summer.

Results show 99% of the bat population survived following the Battle for our Birds pest control operation.

This is almost twice the survival rates (50-60%) shown to occur without pest control in a beech mast (seeding) year.

The Westport News

Of the 22 kea monitored during aerial 1080 operations in Kahurangi National Park last year, two have been killed by the poison, says Department of Conservation (DOC) Westport conservation services manager Bob Dickson.

The two kea were found dead in the Oparara Basin (western Kahurangi) following the 1080 aerial drop that occurred last November.

Otago Daily Times

All 17 radio-tagged kea in the Mt Arthur region of Kahurangi National Park have survived the 1080 Battle for our Birds operation.

The fate of a further five kea being monitored in the park's Oparara block will not be known until rain washes the last of the poison bait away.

The New Zealand Herald

Ban on poison would be disastrous for native birds, leaving only cost-prohibitive methods, warns DoC expert

DoC says more Kea would be killed by predators than through eating poison bait.

A senior Department of Conservation scientist says a ban on 1080 poison would be catastrophic for some native birds. Dr Graeme Elliott, who is co-ordinating fieldwork for the department's aerial blitz using bait containing 1080, said the poison was the only way to control predators such as rats and stoats on a large scale.