Young people in the Town Belt Kaitiaki education and conservation programme recently visited Robin Hood Park in the Dunedin Town Belt to develop hands-on trapping techniques.
City Sanctuary project manager Kate Tanner guided children in safe use of several traps that protect native flora and fauna from invasive predators such as possums, rats and stoats.
She also demonstrated bait options, including possum dough, blaze and smooth blue lure.
Balmacewen Intermediate pupil Saanvika Palagulla said she began trapping last year and she enjoyed getting out into nature.
"It is really fun."
She was guided through placing bait and safely setting a T-Rex rodent trap.
Arthur Street School pupil Ziah Bennett said he had been involved in trapping and predator monitoring for the last two years.
Learning to use the T-Rex rodent trap was "scary" at the start, but once he learned to set it safely it was "pretty fun".
"We have also done the Trapinator, trap tunnels and chew cards."
He said it was entertaining and fun to learn new things and also enjoyed being able to visit environments such as the Town Belt.
"It is better for nature and it is giving us, like, more perspective on life, on how to make our world better," he said.
He had noticed more birds and fewer rodents during his visits over the last two years.
"We have had more kereru, more tui. There is just a huge variant of more birds showing up."
One of his favourite observations was seeing three pīwakawaka (fantail) and a kererū (wood pigeon) during a visit to the Town Belt.
"Which was pretty cool to see."
Dunedin City Council chief executive Sandy Graham was also invited to attended the session.
She tried her hand at setting a Flipping Timmy possum trap and learned more about local predators.
She was surprised to learn hedgehogs, often a childhood favourite in stories, are pests in New Zealand.
She had noticed the difference in wildlife at her home since predator free projects had begun.
"It is just fantastic, it makes for such a wonderful urban environment to live in," she said.
