1080 working well against rats: Doc

The Department of Conservation is declaring victory after its ''Battle for our birds'' aerial 1080 drop in the upper Wakatipu area two months ago.

Queenstown conservation services manager John Roberts said monitoring of rat numbers in the Dart Valley indicated a ''rat tracking percentage'' of 1%, compared with figures of 6% in May and 13% in July.

The Routeburn and Caples Valleys showed similar results, while in nearby areas not treated with 1080, the percentage was 30%, Mr Roberts said.

''It's also bad news for stoats, many of which would have been killed when eating the poisonous rat carcasses.

''Overall this is fantastic news for native birds, which can now nest and raise their young without trying to survive a plague of predators.''

The department dropped 1080 over nearly 20,000ha of beech forest across the three valleys in August to prevent a population explosion of rats and stoats after a heavy seeding of beech trees last summer.

It is one of 25 confirmed 1080 operations over 680,000ha of conservation land in the South Island.

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