A six-fold explosion in rat activity in the Catlins is one reason the Department of Conservation will boost pest control measures in the lower South Island.
The department will spend $500,000 in the coming year on rat control in Hawdon Valley, Dart Valley, Eglington Valley and the Catlins, south Otago, where recent monitoring showed rat activity was six times above normal levels.
Native bat and bird species, particularly the yellowhead and orange-fronted parakeets, were suffering from increased rat numbers, spokesman Richard Suggate told Radio New Zealand.
"If we don't intervene we may actually lose those populations completely from some of those valleys," he says.
Rat control work will start in the Dart Valley later this month.
