New Zealand will eliminate all non-native predator species

DavidBrown said:
The prime minister of New Zealand has committed to eradicating all feral cats, rats, weasels, and other non-native mammalian predators by 2050
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Presumably Homo sapiens is not counted as a non-native mammalian predator (even the Anglo-saxon variety) ;)

Alan
 
certainly there is the potential for entirely eliminating all possums and mustelids in NZ. Feral cats would be much more problematic because recruits would still be coming from pet cats unless they were to be banned (which is never going to happen). Rats and mice will never be eliminated from the two main islands - in theory it would be possible, in practice I think highly unlikely.

The major issue with removing mustelids is that the rodents then have far fewer controls. If cats are removed as well, then the rodents have no controls. And rats are one of the major predators of native wildlife.

If possums can be eliminated then there are no bad side-effects, only good ones.

Hooved animals will never be removed, and they are not included in the plans anyway, because people like hunting them.


There's another article here with some more numbers: Government reveals conservation project with aim to be predator free by 2050 - National - NZ Herald News
 
Chlidonias said:
certainly there is the potential for entirely eliminating all possums and mustelids in NZ. Feral cats would be much more problematic because recruits would still be coming from pet cats unless they were to be banned (which is never going to happen). Rats and mice will never be eliminated from the two main islands - in theory it would be possible, in practice I think highly unlikely.

The major issue with removing mustelids is that the rodents then have far fewer controls. If cats are removed as well, then the rodents have no controls. And rats are one of the major predators of native wildlife.

If possums can be eliminated then there are no bad side-effects, only good ones.

Hooved animals will never be removed, and they are not included in the plans anyway, because people like hunting them.


There's another article here with some more numbers: Government reveals conservation project with aim to be predator free by 2050 - National - NZ Herald News
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You could send all the possums over here!
 
New Zealanders are the worlds experts in removing feral animals, if anybody can do it, it would be them. But a huge and continuing commitment from governments over many years would be required. Politicians are good at announcing grand projects they won't be around to have to fund!

I'm wondering if there has been any of the controversy from overseas animal rightists over the proposal similar to what occurred when the Australian government announced the plan to cull 2,000,000 feral cats?
 
MRJ said:
New Zealanders are the worlds experts in removing feral animals, if anybody can do it, it would be them. But a huge and continuing commitment from governments over many years would be required. Politicians are good at announcing grand projects they won't be around to have to fund!

I'm wondering if there has been any of the controversial from overseas animal rightists over the proposal similar to what occurred when the Australian government announced the plan to cull 2,000,000 feral cats?
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Well no Aussies did as everybody here HATES feral cats.
 
animal_expert01 said:
Well no Aussies did as everybody here HATES feral cats.
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I'm aware of the Australian attitude to feral cats as I do live here. I was after the international reaction.

Actually there was some backlash from animal rightists here - not much but a little.
 
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