Possum Activity and Interactions (Updated) June 2021

 

We are continue to monitor activity on a variety of local farm locations involving brush tailed possums, sound lures and interactions.

It is continuing to reinforce what we have been seeing recently over time and at a variety of locations - that the sound lures are proving effective at drawing possums to an area where we have been able to deploy Timms possums traps, which are now working effectively, with a number of successful catpures.

We are seeing that the springing of a trap is not proving to be a hinderance to additional possum activirty, if anything we are seeing heightened activity when there is a deceased animal in the trap, with numerous possum interactions with the dead animal.   

We believe that there is clear evidence that the lure, picture left, is drawing animals towards the areas of the lure, they are not frightened by the lure when in its vicinity (as evidence by the lure operating while they are present) and additional animals are being brought into the area once the first animal has been caught.   We have also recently seen the arrival of the New Zealand Hawk which has been feeding on possums that have been caught in the traps.   While this is not a focus for our investigation of sound lures it is proving some striking imagery.

Hawks in New Zealand are not considered a pest bird and while they are not a focus of our investigation we have seen then several times as part of our work - and them feeding potentially on trapped possums is safer for the animals than feeding on roadkill.

We have stated recently that we are going to be producing our final set of data for this project and essentially winding it down - we will be publishing our full results as we continue both this investigation and the stoat work that we have been looking at.

Rainbow LED Initial Deployment

 

The next variation that we have been trying with the unit is a rainbow LED.   This essentially is the sound lure unit with an additional output - a rainbow LED which works in conjunction (at the same time) as the sound.

This is a replacement for the 'feather' motor that was also operating at the same time, as both aspects of the unit additions run from the same location.  Recent trials with the 'feather' motor have seen interest from feral cats visiting the unit repeatedly and also to the extent that it pulled the feather from the inside of rat box caging - as detailed on this blog.

The first night of the LED saw some interesting interactions.   Firstly the LED was placed inside the rat box this had the affect of creating having the entire box light up when the LED operated with is shower of colour.    Furthermore there was repeated visit from large rats to the site.   In each case the rats can be seen showing interest in the rat box with the LED and ignoring or showing no interest in the DOC 200 which is baited with rabbit (it should be also noted that the rat box with the LED is baited with a T-Rex with peanut butter, this was not activated during the evening.   While this is very much the initial deployment with the set up the potential here seems very encouraging.   

As we have done with our test deployment at this site we will continue to monitor the deployment of the unit and notice the interactions that are occurring.  We are intending to operate the unit with the LED and the light at present it is the LED only that is operating.

Phase Two: Data Gathering/Stoat Project Launch

 

We are now moving into our second significant data recording phase based around our sound lure work.

We have started the process of collecting data on three seperate farms spread about South Taranaki.  At each of these locations we are running sound lures in conjunction with trail camers to monitor activity and at the same farm, in a distinctly different location we are placing trail cameras so that allows us a point of difference between the two sites to answer the question whether or not the sound lure are making a difference to encouraging the numbers of possums that are in the area.   

We are also very excited by the fact that we are also starting our stoat trial, using a version of the sound lure which is focussed on attracting mustlelids to speciifc traps.   This is being run for us by Feral Control Taranaki.   We have been fortunate to receive the support of Fonterra Kapuni, and Fonterra Group in general to allow this trial to go ahead.  It is being conducted in South Taranaki independant of our own data gather process to test the viability of the units in another setting and to apply the technology to animals that we have not been able to specifically target at great lengths as we focus on possums for the Curious Minds/Venture Taranaki data gathering.

We will be updating the data from both of these projects on this blog as it becomes available.

We are going to be conducting further testing on new versions of the base unit which are focussed on light (with rainbow LEDs) and movement - with a small motor both of which that will be activated by the base unit at the same time that the sound is activated.  We will be posting details of these developments shortly.

Possum Sound Lure: Final Prototype

 

Today we've finally completed the coding and design of the Possum version of our sound lure.   This is going to target brush tailed possums locally in Taranaki.   

We are very fortunate to have the support of Venture Taranaki and the Curious Minds Project as part of this process who have been invaluable in assisting with funding to ensure this project goes ahead.

While the desgin of the unit is familiar to regular visitors to this blog there are some key differences between this unit and early versions, or the version that we are currently using to target Stoats and other pests.

Firstly we have significantly altered the code with regards to this version - this version of the unit remains silent during daylight hours (while it is charging) and will only start to activate at night, once the solar panel detects that the light level is 'night'.   This is of course because Possums are a nocturnal animal.   

Secondly the sound profile that is being played is exclusively possum related, rather than the generic version that we have been using to this point which has had a range of noises.   While it has shown clearly that possums appear to be attracted towards a range of noise we want to specifically see if there are sounds which are going to encourage possums more than others.   Our first batch of sounds are a range of possum noises that have been either supplied to us or available online that we've been able to adapt.   

Finally we have made our first technical change in nearly a year of our initial set ups.  We have significantly upgraded the solar panel that we are using with the unit.   Our first deploymenets involved using several different units, the main unit that we used was a Solar Panel that was 5v and 1.2w.   We were also running other versions of the lure with slightly larger units to see if we could get the balance right between charging the unit successfully and producing a cost effective way to do so.    While we felt the units were charging successfully we also were monitoring the unit in semi-shade conditions and the solar panles ability to be robust when faced with windy conditions.    We have made attempts to design ways to ensure the panel is attatched to the unit or produce seperate housing for it.   It should also be noted that the original panels that are still in use have been deployed outside for a full calendar year and are still working as expected with minimum protection for them.

Curious Minds Possum Project: Final Test Deployment

Over the past week we have had test units, with cameras and Timms possum traps placed on a local rural location.   We have been monitoring the images taken from the camera and are processing the images as part of our project.   There are two distinct sites: one with a sound lure and a Timms possum trap working in conjunction with each other and site two, which is over 100m away in another location with a Timms possums trap.   During the first week we have noticed the following:

This daytime photograph shows the site for deployment clearly shown with the trap next to the tree.   The Timms possum trap has been baited with pear.   A chew card was placed (nailed) onto the tree by this location, however it was removed as during strong winds this was creating acivations as a result of movement.

There were a number of possums that expressed interest in the trap during the week, including several who interacted with the trap, however none attempted to take the bait within the trap.

The camera has a delay of thirty seconds meaning an activation occurs if there is movement and the movement is consistent for thirty seconds.

Clearly there are a number of brush tailed possums operating in the area.  These were clearly shown numerous times on the camera, some spending time in the vicinty of the trap.

We are logging all the data (images) from the week to create a detailed level of data from the project.  A domestic cat was also seen on the images passing through the area. 

At the second location on this deployment site as shown the two traps are placed adjacent to each other.   We have the sound lure inside the rat tunnel box, this has reduced the level of sound emitting from the device significantly, however the purpose of this deployment is to test the camera and recording aspects of the project.    We also have the original sound profile that was developed which includes stoat, chick noises and two possum noises.

There were repeated interactions with rats during the week including one that was trapped in the trap.   There were interactions with rodents climbing over the trap and being seen in the area.    The rat tunnel trap was baited with peanut butter as an afterthought, it was again, an opportunity to check camera deployment and ensure that issues would not be present such a 'false' images created by high winds.

There was one significant interaction with a brush tailed possum, shown on the image on the left.   The possum did not stay in the area of the trap.   

In summary the week long deployment has provided significant images of high quality to ensure that we can monitor effectively what is happening at local sites where the lures are deployed.   Having a thirty second camera delay ensures that high winds do not produce a significant amount of false activations, where no animals are present.    We will now deploy at this site for a significant length of time monitoring what is occurring at the sites where the sound lures and non sound lure sites.    This will allow us to see and show clear evidence of what is happening and show proof of the effectiveness of the lures.   These will be set up to specificallly target possums, at present we are using a generic sound profile with a mix of animals.     Shortly we will move to a possum specific lure that will remain silent during the day and play possum specific calls and noises at night.   We will also look at placing the lure outside of the rat box as this will significantly increase the volume that will be produced (and thereby increase the sound profile of the lure).    

Phase Two: Curious Minds Project Possum Focus

 

Recently we have experienced some challenging times as we await for technology for the start of the Curious Minds Possum Project aspect of our work.  Due to international circumstances some of the resources that we require for our project launch has been delayed, although we are expecting it in the immediate future.

In the meantime we continue to work with a number of partners who are deploying sound lures with a mustlelid focus.   You can read about this aspect of our work here.

Today we started the next phase of our Possum project.   We have deployed out final phase of test projects, putting a Timms Possum trap in a deployed area with a sound lure, currently contained within a rat box with a t-rex trap immediatetly adjacent to it.    We have both covered by a trail camera to record interactions with the unit (as shown above) and placed it in an area that is located on a local farm, in an area of bush that borders a river.    This is a similar location to deployment site one, detailed on this blog, but it on the other side of the river.

Trapping from the local farmer at this location has indicated that there are Brush Tailed Possums in the area.   There also have been other pest species including Hedgehogs, Rats and Ferrets.   We will be closely monitoring this deployment and have a secondary trap that is located a significant distance from the sound lure.   We are also monitoring this trap with a trail camera so that we can log the interactions and look at the two differences between the two seperate deployments.

Following this trial we will start rolling this set up out to the local South Taranaki locations.

Sound Lure: Further Deployment Developments

This photograph shows the deployment location of one of the project sound lures which is in the McKenzie Country in the South Island of New Zealand.

This is part of a larger trap line and is operating with the 'Stoat' sound lure profile, it has been placed inside a DOC 250.

Thank you to Peter from the University of Otago for the opportunity to test the unit at this location.

We are looking forward to seeing the results from this unit and others that are currently being set up on the West Coast of the South Island targetting Stoats.

Deploying the sound lure units throughout the country will allow us to produce invaluable data about the use of the units and their effectiveness.

Following an overhaul of our camera recording equipment at the Deployment One Location, close to Kapuni we have noticed a significant increase in activity around the sound lure.   The image on the left from two days ago shows a large rat in the vicinty of the trap, to the left of the tree.   There was not a specific activation of the trap.   Recorded 15/08/2020.

The second image (below) is from the following evening.   Again there is clear evidence of a brush tailed possum, slightly obscured to the right in the tree immediately next to the sound lure.    The unit deployment consists of a chew card on the tree, an additional wire cage where rabbit meat has been placed in the past,

a rat box immediately next to the tree housing a sound lure (with solar panel visible on top of the unit) and finally to the right of the sound lure is a secondary trap with mice traps.    This has been placed to remove mice from the area to allow the rat trap to remain in place.

At this stage we are just using peanut butter on the main trap as a basic bait.  The intention has always been once the basic electrics have been mastered to include a varietty of traps and baits as well as refining the basic sound profile to target specifc pest animals.   

Curious Minds Projects 2020 - Taranaki Funding

We are very proud to annouce that we have been granted significant funding from Venture Taranaki to spend a year researching sound lures specific to possums in our local environment.

This is a huge boost for our sound lure project moving forward which will allow us to operate at a regional level with a significant project over the next twelve months.   It will mean that we will be able to link and network with a variety of organisations and individuals regionally and also potentially bring a huge audience to this project and work. 

We are extremely greatful for this support and funding as it will allow this project to continue to expand and progress regionally.  There will be further announcements about this moving forward.

In addition to our Curious Minds Project we are continuing to develop our use of sound lures to target additional creatures - mustlelids and rats are a focus for our deployment at New Plymouth Airport.

This development has four of our units deployed at the airport which took place in late June 2020.   In the first week of deployment, within the first forty-eight hours there were two activations including the capture of a stoat. 

This is hugely significant as this is the first Stoat captured at the airport despite extensive and detailed trapping over a considerable time.    The second checking of the traps two days later revealed that there were three mice in the traps.

We are continuing to explore interest from other groups and organisations who would like to trail the technology throughout the region and nationally.   If you would be intereested in doing so and have not yet made contact with us you can do so by emailing the project at myles.webb@gmail.com.

Sound Lures: First External Deployment

We are preparing for the first external deployments of the sound lure unit which has been developed since last September in this current form (having being revised several times in terms of coding, unit set up, solar powered plannning etc). 

It has always been the intention since the projects inception to make the units, which are extremely cost effective, available for wider trials and experimentation to try and improve their use.   As has been noted many times on this blog the units in deployment currently are deployed for the purposes of testing to deal with issues of the units reliability, the battery levels and water proofing.   Once we can establish testing zones or areas outside of the current location we can start looking at sounds, frequency of activations of sounds etc and determine the contribution of the sound lures to effective trapping. 

Evidence strongly suggests that it works with a range of creatures, but this is documented on a small scale at present and there are also other factors directly affecting the deployment (such as the domestic cat which is clearly is visiting the site each night) and the presence of other animals (the large dog) and cats.   There is also the location of the sound lure relative to the river as this is placed in such a location that it near an active part of the river which generates other noise.
Very shortly there is going to be significant developments with the project and also start to expand the deployment.   These are taking place at a number of locations throughout the region, with a focus specifically on possums for a major regional project. 

There will be a secondary project focussed on other pest animals which will take place at select locations, some of these locations will be external to the Taranaki region where we are based. 

Right from the onset of the project we have been interesting in partnering with groups and indidivduals who are actively involved in pest reduction in both our region (Taranaki) and the wider region of New Zealand.  While the target was originally going to be stoats there are a wide range of potential for the technology and the set up.   If you have not made contact with us yet and would liket to do so at some point for using the technology or working with us can you please email us at myles.webb@gmail.com

The sound lure can be left at a location, in sunlight, and charge and operate independently.   It appears at the time of writing (six months) that it was not adversely be affected by weather.   It can be programmed in a huge number of ways to reflect a variety of variables based around operating.

We have changed the base profile at the main testing location.   The new sound profile has retained the 'chick' sound, which is the day profile.   This also features at night four additional sound profiles, rat, field mouse, and two variations of distressed rabbit.   These profiles are playing at one minute random intervals from within the inside of the box.   The box is currently a standard rat box, with a t-rex plastic trap inside.   

Due to testing conditions and activations we have placed a second box next ot the sound lure box.  This has two deployed mouse traps, as mice have been responsible for clearing out the traps without setting off the larger trap.

On the third night of this deployment with the new sound profile the brush tailed possum shown in the photographs appears at the trap and tries to interact with it.

Final Prototype Deployment Activations/Weather Situations

Following three days of rainfall, wind and generally poor weather there has been two significant activations on the single unit deployment at site one.   There are three issues here that are worth noting. 

Firstly the IP Box which has been waterproofing the main portion of the electronics has work as expected.   There has been three days of rain and while the box has been at the base of a tree offering it some basic protection (as opposed to being placed inside a trap box as eventually it will be) the unit has been exposed to the elements.   We have stated that the solar panel and speaker are being housed separate from the main unit and they are more exposed to the elements, and there was evidence of rainfall on both.    For the main unit there is no evidence of moisture inside the box itself which is housing the main electronics (and the expensive parts of the units, see 'economic breakdown' in a different post on this blog).

The two activations that are present shown on the camera are represented by a cat which can be seen in the above photo.  It is clearly seen on a series of photos that take place at 8:25pm.   As noted the camera needs to be reset so that it reflects daylight savings and the correct year.

We have shown evidence in the past of the unit with the basic sound profile (which we are using again for current testing) which has two possum sounds, two chick sounds and a stoat sound consistenly attracting cats and feral cats to the unit.  The second activation which can be seen clearly in the photographs is the large brush tailed possum which arrived at the unit and was in the vicinity of the unit at 9:15pm. 

The final issue relating to the unit is again the question of the battery unit and solar panel charging.  There has been three days of rainfall and overcast weather.   The suspicion is that this has limited the ability to charge the unit.  There is clear evidence that the unit has been working during darkness (as shown by the photographs) however by the early morning the unit has stopped.  This is something that has been experienced with the unit.   The speaker deployed with this unit is a 4w speaker.   Once the unit has been moved into morning light the unit has started immediately operating exactly as expected (using the day profile).    We are going to run trials with different strength speakers and also experiment with the solar panel in a location that has more direct access to sunlight, in addition we are charging the unit fully in daylight (solar) and will then place it in semi-shade for the deployment.

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.

Sound Lure Project - Summary of 2019

The project stared during the 2019 Calendar Year.  Much of the detail of the project is contained within the 'Auro Rangers/Innovator Slideshow'.   This slide show details the start of the project and its development from a basic school project into the 123 Tech Competition Entry.  As the project began to progress it was obvious that the project would evolve further from this competition and also involve more specific work and information.

Above: Domestic Cat interacting with sound lure box. November 2019

In November 2019 the first of five units were deployed in the South Taranaki Area.   One unit was deployed at a river location, (location one) which had previously been monitored by a tracking camera.   When the sound lure was deployed at the site there was significant increase in the amount of pest animals that visited the site, including possums who had not previously been present.

One of the five lures was significantly damaged by water as a result of a significant amount of rainfall in November (60mm was recorded) that pooled in the storage box and caused the computer to stop working, another was held over for testing.   Three remained deployed and in use to test their effectiveness, robustness and viability.

Above: Possum climbing tree with sound lure November 2019

Location one showed significant evidence of pest species interacting with the lure.   The lure was in a shaded location, requiring the 'boosting' of the battery every three or so days.  This is being detailed in a separate post. 

Location two (first phase) was on a local farm belonging to one of the students - this was located on Rama Road.  At this site there was increased feral cat activity relating to the lure which had not previously been detected.  The first phase of deployment ended with the conclusion of the 2019 School Year and the 123 Tech Awards National Finals.  At that point the remaining lures were collected in and retired for the end of the school year.   Of the five units that were used in phase one, four of them were still working as of December 2019.       

The students had presented at Kapuni Fonterra during the school year, as a result of this the project was able to source an additional ten sound lure units to be deployed.   The intention at this stage (January 2020) is to deploy half of these units at New Plymouth Airport and half of these units at Lake Rotokare Reserve.

The start of phase two of the Sound Lure deployment will commence in January 2020 with a measured deployment at New Plymouth Airport.   These units will be deployed in conjunction with the New Plymouth Airport pest control program.