Extensive Rodent Activations May 2020

The deployment of the current testing of the lure is now taking place in Autumn in New Zealand.  At activation site one the maize that is on the other side of the location (the river is the other) has been cut down.  A result has seen significant increase in the amount of rodent activity around the lure.   In the past five days there have been 108 activations of animals including mice, rats and cats.   

Of note the animals have been seen interacting with the lure, with the lure currently placed on the box on top of the trap to expose it to the weather elements to test the efficiency of the water proofing of the unit.   We will shortly modify the set up by

placing the sound unit inside the box itself and altering the sound to include rats and mice (it is currently using the original sound profile which is possum, chicks and stoat). 

We are seeing extensive mouse activity which is provign to be problematic as mice have been able to remove the bait without triggering the trap itself.   Also of note as shown in the top photograph there is at least one rat in the vicinity of the trap that is too large to enter the trap.   Finally the other issue that needs to be addressed during the deployment of the site is the presence in the general area of domestic animals.   This includes a large dog and two domestic cats.   Both of

these cats have been seen interacting with the lure and in the lures vicinity. 

In previous deployments in other locations feral cats have been seen interacting with the lure.

On the night of Monday 11th May there was considerable interaction with the lure from the two domestic cats, with 40 out of 54 interactions being indentified as domestic cats (the first time in the five day period that they have been seen at the deployment site).   A question that needs to be answered is how the cat activity is having an affect on the amount of rodent activity - and this will probably only be answered once the unit can be

deployed at external locations.   

The New Zealand Government has recently announced a move from Alert Level Three to Alert Level Two for dealing with Coronavirus/Covid-19.   This will allow the opportunity for work and deployment on the sound lure at a variety of locations that are distinct and allow opportunities for further development of the sound profile and testing.   As has been mentioned several times on this blog there are several significant annoucements and media projects and examples related to this project shortly to be announced.

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.