It turned out the assumed ferret was actually a stoat, whom the staff nicknamed Roger. But Roger proved incredibly elusive. The staff identified a place they thought he may have been coming in and out of the store and blocked it off, to no avail. Despite Heslin putting calls out on Facebook for advice on how to catch Roger, no one was able to offer much help. She got a stoat trap from Environment Southland, but Roger was too little and slipped through the wire after devouring a feed of raw meat, she said.
On Wednesday morning, store manager Lynette Mills managed to throw a towel over Roger, and placed a basket weighed down by a fan over him. Heslin fed him meat off-cuts while they awaited the arrival of animal control. Animal Control officer Michael Murdoch, who done the job for a decade, said this was his first call out for a rogue stoat. It was possible Roger came from the nearby Otepuni Stream area, he said. Unfortunately Roger won't be long for this world. Because stoats are a predator and a pest in New Zealand he will be destroyed.
Stoats were first introduced to the South Island in 1884 to control rabbits. A number of further liberations in other areas of the country soon followed. Stoats spread quickly into the forests of Fiordland and other areas where there were no rabbits. They are now found from Northland to Bluff and are implicated in the extinction of some indigenous bird species and are the major cause of decline of many others. Predation of young kiwi, chiefly by stoats, is currently the most important factor contributing to the continuing decline of mainland kiwi populations.
With video of Roger in the store window.
No comments:
Post a Comment