2022 Project: New Focus on Stoats

Please note: This project needs to be put in the context of the work that has already been completed from 2019-2022.  This was a project started with students who were Y5/6 at the time, using technology to develop a suitable sound lure to target invasive pest species in South Taranaki, predominantly Stoats.   During 2020 a pivot was made towards possums.  I would like to acknowledge the work of Andrew Hornblow from Opunake and the funding and support of Curious Minds, Taranaki, both of whom this project would not have started, nor would it have continued.   This is not a scientific project as such this is practical project targeted at using technology to assist the removal of pests species, on a budget.

2022 Season - Targeting Stoats once Again

Having experimented using sound during the last three years to target first stoats and then possums we finished last year having a reflective think about next steps that we might use.

Questions were raised about how effective the sound was, in particular if the sound was acting a deterrent to animals who might otherwise investigate the trap.   We were able to show evidence that possums in particular seemed to want to investigate, as various footage posted on this blog shows, while other testing indicated that this was not the case.

We were keen to experiment with a range of sounds and also using a motor attached to the sound unit to see if the noise and movement created by a small motor would be enough to encourage interaction.

The set up for this new variation is shown left.  Familiar viewers of this blog or project will recognise that the unit has remained the same, and it is the same hardware set up, the only addition has been two additional terminals on the outside of the unit which connect to two sets of wires which then subsequently power the motor.

For testing purposes the motor will be powered to go off at random intervals.  It will rotate during this time, spinning both of the plastic gears that are visible.  Once the unit has played once it will rest and then operate again.   With optimal batter charge from the solar powered unit we would expect the unit to operate once every minute.   The lures are being placed adjacent and into a DOC 200 stoat trap.   This will allow the sound to echo from inside the unit and for the unit to vibrate slightly.   We are going to remove the speakers to the unit for the initial trial so the only sound generated by the units operation will come from the grinding of the gears and the unit operating.   We intend combining this with appropriate sounds at some point however at this time we are disabling the speakers so that the length of the motors moving is related to the length of the (silent) audio track.  This has introduced some variability to the units operations (as the audio tracks are all different lengths).

Having run basic trials in and around our school of this set up the movement based aspect of the units can be further enhanced to adding length to the motor gear (in this instance is involving a green pipe cleaner as a basic test).

Our initial goal in the next two weeks is to run several of these units in existing stoat trapping projects.  We want to determine how the unit will operate during deployment conditions, how this will compare to the traditional units (mechanical) that are part of the projects or run.

While the unit as shown on the left may look complicated we have in the past put together the unit with a group of students who are at Year 5/Year 6 level (under supervision) these units are operating as intended correctly.    

We are also for this purpose converting units that have been used with just audio so we have not had to create a group of units from scratch which would be both time consuming and relatively expensive (again we have managed to ensure that the price of the units has remained in the region of $50.00 total.

We are very much interested in having people test and experiment with any variation of this unit.  If you would like to do so, you are more than welcome to get in touch with the project by contacting the teacher who is in charge.  He can be emailed at: myles.webb@gmail.com.

We are limited with our time and money in this regard so please be aware of this - this is not a fully scientific project it is a project run as a 'passion project' by a pair of individuals and has students for the most part being responsible for its testing and its deployment.  We are more than willing to partner with others please take the time to get in contact with us.

We will again starting documenting the units development and adjustments on a semi-regular basis.