A highly successful trip was had by OTP students this week. We came away with a haul of 3 rats (in varying stages of decompose), 2 mice and 2 possums! We also got to try out our new binoculars and spot not one but THREE weweia, including a juvenile, pretty exciting stuff! We ALSO had […]

Our Bream Bay College trappers went out for their first trap checking of the term in Week 2. All of the rat and stoat traps were empty but both our possum traps had very large possums in them. During our bird count we were happy to hear lots of bird life – it has definitely […]

OTP was back at it for the start of the last term before summer holidays. We did the rounds and were rewarded with a large rat on our final trap of the line. A big ship rat too! We also had a few other tasks today, finding the location for a few wētā hotels and […]

On Thursday 19th of the 9th we set out to check and bait the traps. We saw tyre marks, a clear sign that someone had been down there on their dirt bike. One of the first few traps had a mouse that had gone in there and tried to escape but was to slow. It […]

A rainy day saw us return to the dam. With a break in the weather we were able to get around all the traps and complete our bird count. 2 decent sized, fresh ship rats greeted us at both ends of the trap line. We re-baited and wondered why we hadn’t caught a possum this […]

We arrived at Pukekauri Dam and first walked up the gravel path. We checked the traps and there was a massive rat tail curling around the door. YES!! What a start. We then moved on to the bush, down the end of the dam. We found a possum hanging from the trap and two mini […]

Our first solo trip out to check the traps went well. With a week between checking, there wasn’t a lot to be found but we did manage to get a possum in each of the possum traps and a rat. Our new team for 2024 got into their stride with checking, recording and rebaiting and […]

Wow!! Waipu got really lucky last week and managed to catch an elusive weasel! It was the first one a school has caught and we were pretty pleased with that. On top of that we caught 2 possums, 4 rats and a mouse! Quite the haul. We were so glad to get these pests out […]

A sunny and blustery day saw us return to Pukekauri Dam after the holidays. Steve recorded a total of 14 rats/ mice and one possum over the holiday period – so they are definitely back out in force. Today OTP students also collected a good haul, with 3 and a half rats (only the head […]

Students from Ruakākā and Waipu School met with Steve for the first time at Pukekauri Dam. Steve taught us how to check and re-bait each trap, and the kids were excited to see we had caught a few mice. We also think we caught a glimpse of a weweia. The best part of the day […]

Yesterday a new group of keen trappers from Bream Bay College and One Tree Point Schools visited Pukekauri Dam to resume our pest trapping efforts for 2024. After having set the traps for the final time before the holidays almost 2 months ago, we were unsure what would be found. Steve made a trip up […]

Oh the excitement!! Steve’s visit to the dam the other day caught the elusive weweia on camera! Not only the pair that we hoped were still in residence but their two new babies riding on their backs, as is the weweia way! This is everything that the project is about and we are so grateful […]

What a year it has been! This project has been such an amazing collaboration between so many awesome people and I am very grateful to have been a part of it. Seeing the students’ engagement and enthusiasm for protecting our environment has been outstanding. To date we have caught 89 pests – 68 mice/ rats, […]

On Thursday the 2nd of November, Paige and Lilah went to Pukekauri Dam and got the record of nine pests caught. We got … two ship rats, two possums, two mice, one Norway rat, and two regular rats and that’s how we got the record! One rat had obviously been there a long time, it […]

Waipu School had a beautiful day for trapping on the last week of term 3. Apparently, the weweia thought so too and we got to see a pair together and each one came really close to us, which was very exciting. Steve told us that when the babies are born they ride on the adults […]

We checked our first station and discovered a very maggoty rat. We placed 3 new rat traps along our line and also came across a possum we had caught. As we approached station 5 we heard a rattling and banging in one of the traps. This was the first time we had discovered a very […]

Over the past 3 weeks, Steve and I have been checking the traps up at Pukekauri. The predators are definitely making themselves more evident again with the weather warming up. During the last week of term and the school holidays we have caught 9 rats or mice and 6 possums. With the addition of our […]

The Bream Bay College boys headed up to the trap line for their last check of the term last week and struck the jackpot! With the weather getting warmer, there is definitely some more pest movement and we had five traps with pests in them. Along the left hand trap line there were three ship […]

The Bream Bay College team headed up to Pukekauri on Thursday last week for their turn to check the traps. It was another stunning blue sky day and the temperature was much milder than the last time we were up there! Jacque from Enviroschools came up with us to see what we’ve been getting up […]

This was Te Ara Kahika/ OTP’s 2nd solo trip to the dam this term. It included Piper, Carter, Jayden and Scott. We caught 2 rats and a mouse. We set up a new trap at station 1 for possums. Scott drilled the possum box into a plank of wood to attach it to a tree. […]

Ruakākā School visited Pukekauri today to check out the traps and see if we could spot the elusive Weweia. It was a successful trip, the sun was shining and we had two traps with rats in them. One of our rat traps had a little visitor hiding in it, a baby weta had decided it […]

Hi we are Kirwan, Georgia, Carter, Scott, Piper and Jayden from One Tree Point School. Today was our turn to check the traps as the Pukekauri Dam. Sadly, we only caught one rat, which appeared to have been trapped only by its foot (a bit of a sad end for that rat). During our trip […]

Today was our last trip to Pukekauri dam with the students before the holidays. It turned out to be a very interesting visit! We began our trap check and reached station 7, where Steve and I had left a rat in our DOC200 the previous week in the hopes of luring something else in. However, […]

One of the great things about this project has been working with our teachers, principals and students from across our four Bream Bay Kahui Ako schools. We had an article done by the Northern Advocate which was published today. Full article: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/pest-management-project-brings-together-bream-bay-kura/EGV6NBZIJVDPNNJ5WMIY6CAKI4/

After visiting the site again on Thursday, we had only caught 1 mouse in the traps this week and I only collected 1 mouse the previous week. We discussed potential reasons for the lull in catches: change in weather, old bait, other predators could have some possible influence. We changed out all the baits on […]

After being rained off for our first return trip to the dam, Whaea Jess and members of Patuharakeke have been checking and clearing the traps weekly. We found that if the traps were not cleared weekly then the bait would be gone, the kills would be degraded and the predators would get to suspect of […]