Sound Lure: Deployment Site One (Phase One/Two) - Kaupokonui River

November 2019 - a possum interacting with the lure

Location: Banks of Kaupokonui River, South Taranaki.
General Description of Area: This site is located next to a significant local South Taranaki River.   This is adjacent to an active and major Dairy Factory Land, with a maize in the area. 
Background/Details: The site had a tracking camera placed on it in October 2019 as a test site to monitor the level of pest activity in the area.   The site was originally baited with rabbit meat.  This produced a number of activations of rats, hedgehogs, domestic cats and dogs.   Following the creation of the deployable prototype of the sound lure it was first deployed at this site.   This site was regularly accessed

Following its use there was a considerable increase in the amount of pest activity that was evidenced.   In addition to having rats and cats interacting with the lure for the first time possums began appearing at the tree where the lure was located.   They were seen climbing the tree or interacting directly with the lure.   This location was problematic in some ways - as a shaded location with the phase one set up it required the lipo battery to receive a boost to ensure that it worked consistently.  This required its retrieval each night. 

Left:
Site shown at start of deployment with (left to right) a chew card on tree, chicken wire cage which held the initial rabbit meat, the sound lure was placed at the base of the tree or at the base of the tree and to the right.

There is a domestic cat in this photo inteacting wtih the sound lure.   This cat was a regular visitor to the site. 

The images that are shown left represent some of the interactions that occurred on the tree with the sound lure in November and the start of December 2019.   This large rat appeared on the first night of sound lure deployment.  It repeatedly came back to the tree and interacted with the lure.

This possum was the first to interact with the tree, in the prior month, when the rabbit meat had been the only bait there was no evidence (photographic) of possum activity on this tree. 

Following the sound lure deployment it became a regular incident and the possum was repeatedly interacting with the tree.   This possum spent twenty minutes interacting with this tree.

This possum, which is not the same as the photograph series from above shows a brush tailed possum interacting not with a tree but with the sound lure itself.   This possum attempted to open the box where the sound lure was.  All of the images in this sequence are from November 2019.