Doc completes Waikaia Forest 1080 drop

The  long-tailed bat and mohua or yellowhead (below) are both threatened by rodents in Southern forests. Photos supplied.
The long-tailed bat and mohua or yellowhead (below) are both threatened by rodents in Southern forests. Photos supplied.
The first ever 1080 aerial drop in the Waikaia Forest in Northern Southland has been completed

The Department of Conservation's Battle for our Birds campaign began on August 17 in the Iris Burn Valley in Fiordland National Park, and the Waikaia Forest 1080 poison application is the fourth of at least 22 operations from now until November that will attempt to control predicted ''plague'' stoat levels this summer.

The population explosion was because of a massive beech masting, and would put forests' most vulnerable inhabitants at risk, Doc said.

Doc's Battle for our Birds campaign will target pests on at least 600,000ha of conservation land.

The 7000ha Waikaia Forest is home to a threatened mohua (yellowhead) population, long-tailed bats, South Island bush robins, yellow-crowned parakeets, large land snails and velvet worms.

This was the first time an aerial application has been used in the area, a Doc spokesperson said. Warning signs are in place.

An eight-month caution period is also in place, subject to Doc review, and dog owners are advised to keep their animals restrained at all times and avoid contact with pest carcasses encountered in the area.

Deer repellent was used in the application to avoid affecting the area's red deer in accordance with an agreement with the New Zealand Deerstalkers' Association.

Doc used 1080-laced cereal baits - 1kg per hectare - seeding each hectare with 1.5g of the poison.

Doc conservation services manager Ros Cole said the Battle for our Birds programme was an important step in the preservation of native wildlife in the Waikaia Forest.

''Controlling rat and stoat predators here for the first time will give the

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