Animal pests and predators are a major threat to the survival of New Zealand’s special native flora and fauna.

A wide range of  techniques and tools are used to control pests, depending on the threats and the terrain. Ground control is Department of  Conservation’s main approach. They use traps, bait stations or culling. It can prove highly  effective where the terrain is suitable and  regular checks can be made.

It is DoC’s most widely used pest control  approach with more than 400,000 hectares  under ground control management. Around 80 percent of the Animal Health Board’s  operations are ground control. Ground control methods are precise, but are also labour- intensive and expensive.

However modern self setting trap are effective and designed to avoid harming native birds if correctly operated. DoC maintains a network of over 180,000 traps and spends more than $5 million per annum on stoat and rat trapping. DoC also supports possum fur recovery in a number of regions. But even with high fur prices, consistently high numbers of possums are needed to make trapping economic. Also, to ensure the protection of native species,  possum numbers must be driven down to very low levels , this in turn is uneconomic for a fur industry.

This website will inform you of three new types of humane kill traps developed by the Department of Conservation and Philip Waddington. These traps are designed to assist conservationists with their protection of native species that have almost been wiped out by  introduced predators.

These traps are regarded as innovative and  responsible:

The DOC 150 and 200 humanely kill three pest predators - stoats, rats and hedgehogs.

The DOC 250 targets and humanely kills four pest predators - ferrets, stoats, rats and hedgehogs.