Pest

Introduction

Ferrets. A very dangerous, if not the most dangerous pest in NZ(Bay of Plenty). They are in the mustelid family which stoats are also in which could only tell one thing. They are also killing machines. In this report, we will argue the best way to mitigate the deleterious effects of ferrets.

How/why did they come here?

Pests like ferrets don’t appear randomly, they were introduced to New Zealand in the early 1880’s.  They were shipped in from Europe to control the rabbit population. Unfortunately, they breed very quickly and they didn’t just kill rabbits. They started killing the native birds and other animals, making them a bad pest. 

What do they do to the Bay of Plenty?

Ferrets are one of the most wanted pests in the Bay of Plenty. They have a big impact on the environment in New Zealand. Ferrets are like stoats. They kill a lot of native birds like stoats do to the birds. I’ll be talking about what ferrets do to the Bay of Plenty. First of all, they kill our native birds(obviously) and also our native animals like weta. They've been here for over a century, and it’s still a problem. You see how this is going? They have been a problem since about a century ago which means they have killed a lot and I mean a lot of our native animals like kiwi, Kakapo, and Blue duck. This is a problem because we have lost so many animals like kiwi and kakapo which are both endangered.

There are 10 weeds and pests altogether in this chart. Out of the 10 weeds and pests on the chart, only 4 of them are either 25 hectares or more. Common wasps, stoats, possums, and mice are either on the 25 lines or over it. This means it’s common or easy to see these four pests out in the wild compared to a pest or weed like Darwin’s barberry.

Ferret's effect on the food web

Ferrets kill rabbits and hares. Ferrets help control the rabbits and hares which damage farming pastures making less grass for cows and sheep to eat. They also dig burrows where stock can walk into and break their legs. Possums are also killed by ferrets. Possums have a bad impact on some plants like trees, flowers, fruits, and berries. Bees need flowers to pollinate, and humans and animals need fruits and berries to eat. They do have bad effects on the food web too like killing off native birds. 

What are the negative effects of ferrets?

Ferrets have mostly negative effects on the Bay of Plenty. For example, ferrets have killed many native animals from NZ since 1880. Like this, ferrets have been a problem for a long time. I mean imagine how many animals they killed.  This shows that ferrets are not good in NZ B.O.P.

What are the positive effects of ferrets?

Ferrets are bad in the outside world, but they can be different inside. They make good pets and are very playful and can lift your mood. You can train them to do simple things. On the outside, they can control populations of specific animals. Their small body makes easy food for hungry animals larger than them in the wild.

What's the possible solution?

Solution 1: 

Ferrets are very hard to control but there is still a way. One way of catching ferrets is using traps. There is a powerful trap called DOC250 (Department of Conservation)  that can kill ferrets. Ferrets are predators that love meat like rabbits and hares. The meat of the animals they eat is a good bait for different traps. Traps are the best way to contain and kill ferrets. 

Solution 2:

 Ferrets are like stoats, they are the apex predators. But that doesn’t mean we can’t kill it. There are a lot of ways too but one way of killing is baiting it. Baiting is where you put bait in a trap and when the pest grabs the bait, it kills them on the spot. It can come in different shapes like a box or something like a mouse trap. Baiting can kill a lot of pests in NZ and one of them is mustelid. Ferrets are part of the mustelid which means the baiting will kill the ferrets. This means that the number of ferrets will decrease and that means there will be fewer pests.

Solution 3: Another way of killing ferrets is by poisoning them. 1080 is a type of poison that you spread through the forest with a helicopter. It kills a large number of pests at once and is one of the most efficient ways to kill pests. But, it may be the most efficient way but it doesn’t mean it’s the best. 1080 can also kill animals that weren't targeted because it’s a poison pest that has to eat themself which means there is a possibility that other animals could eat it as well. Even though there is a good and bad, we still use it so by 2050 there will be no pests in NZ.

Conclusion

Ferrets overall are one of the biggest pests in New Zealand. They do a huge amount of damage to native birds. As you see, we thought of a lot of solutions but in the end, we chose poison/1080 as the best solution. If you see in the PMI graph, 1080 has the least point which makes it the best choice. This means that 1080/poison is the better choice out of the three solutions we had. Though don’t think this is the best solution because there never is a “BEST” solution in this world, this is just what we think is better compared to the other solutions. 

Bibliography:

1:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kOUPIal8-OoP3j5Cme7tGxt_-oqjtifKDKKuCZt3VRI/edit#gid=0

2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-ur3pRYKFk