123 Tech National Champions

 Today Auroa Primary Schools 123 Tech Competition Team, the Auroa Primary School Power Rangers were awarded first place in the 123 Tech National Competition in the Y5-8 Catergory.   This is a huge achievement for the students of the school to win such an important competition with the Sound Lure Project.   Today the awards was broadcast online and you can watch the awards.   Digital Dan from 123 Tech was secretly hiding at Auroa Primary School and revealed the students as the national champions at the 50:00 mark.    The students received a national award, $1500 for the School and $375 each.

Further Modifications to Existing Brush Tailed Possum Traps

We are continuing to process our initial data which is now starting to show consistency.  On the first farm deploymeent site, which has been running for ninety days we are seeing extended possum interaction at the sound lure location, including possums interacting directly with the sound lure speaker itself.  We have traditional bait traps at this location, the possums are appearing to arrive at the site and show interest in the sound lure, while not interacting with the trap that is present.  At the non-sound lure location we are seeing an occassional possum in the area but not extended actvity.   It should also be noted again

In the next week or so we will be changing our set-up (sound lure) at this location considerably.   In the second farm deployment which has been running even more considerably in favour of the sound lure location (which as been as high as ten to twelve times more activations and eight times the number of possums) in a recent three day period we saw no activations in the non sound lure locatiom, however at the sound lure location we saw twelve possums, a rat and a feral cat - all of which showed interest or interacted with the sound lure.  As shown in the photo one possum went to the extent of knocking the solar panel/computer off the box and picked up the speaker in its teeth and appeared to bite it.

There is clear, sustained evidence that the sound lure is attracting possums and they are interacting directly with the source of the sound, which is in this case the speaker.

We believe that by modifying an existing mechanical trap it will act as a cone to increase the sound and also cause the Possum to interact directly with the trap and the speaker which can only be accessed by the possum triggering the mechanism that sets the trap from the front.  This is potentially a significant development in our research.   We do need to address the connections between the solar panels and the IP rated box which contains the speaker as we are seeing possums interacting with this part of the unit but we have been looking into and using some options which we are confident of resolving at this stage.

Updated Details of Possum Trap

Left: A Timms Possum Trap, modified with the speaker shown in the center position at the back.  The solar panel and unit can be placed behind the unit, the bar which is relased by the spring is placed before the speaker, so the possum must interact with the bar to be able to gain access to the speaker.

We have had evidence of Possums interacting around the trap but not entering the trap (however the same possums can clearly be clearly seen interacting directly with the speaker).    This change in our set up should do the following - the sound coming from the unit should be considerable raised by the shape of the trap, as it creates a significant echo.   

There is significant poor weather this week.   Once this weather is cleared we will be deploying the adapated Timms trap at all of our primary locations as we believe that we should see significant results with the modified set up.

Tahi Rua Toru Tech Competition - National Finalists

At the end of last week we received notification that we had received a wildcard entry into the Tahi Rua Toru (123 Tech) National Finals.  This is a significant achievement for our studnets who are a team of Year 5/Six Students who have been selected as national finalists in a Y5-8 Competition.   We are thrilled with this recognition of the students and the hard work that they have been making throughout the year on their project.   They have the opportunity to present via Zoom to a panel of experts on their project this week and results will be announced next week.

We have finalised our speakers for the unit and made futher developments at looking at powering of the units.    We also have an issue to address that has been evident from recent photographs that have been recorded on our trail cameras - that is we can clearly see that Brush Tailed Possums are targetting the units and interacting with them.    Clearly in the series of photos that are shown on the left the brush tailed possum can be seen ignoring the traps that are baited with peanut butter and fruit (apple) and instead interacts directly with the sound lure.  This is not an isolated incident - at the same location there is an almost identical series of interactions and images a week later from a second possum, that spends time at the location and interacts specificall with the lure.   

We are currently still contemplating out options but one certain possibility is placing the sound lure in conjunction with another form of trap, such as a live capture trap, which the possum would have to enter the cage to interact with the sound lure and trigger a footplate.     

In the latest series of images and data gathering from our location we have again a contrast between the sound lure location and the non- sould lure location.    During the past seven days we have had a single activation at the non sound lure site.  At the sound lure site there has been in comparison some significant activity - twenty one activations with six possums at the site.   

Furthermore two of the possums have clearly directly been in contact with the sound lure, pulling at the wires and knocking the solar panel off its placement location - which has raised a question as to how long the unit has been activating as a result.    

These results continue to be promising at this location - we have had variations of the unit in place since early September and there is a clear pattern developing.  

At the non sound lure location we now have a cumulative total of thirty pest identifcations and 121 acivations.  As a ratio to activations/deployment of 0.49 activations per day of pest animals and 0.50 over the timeframe (essentially we expect at this site to have an activation and a pest every second day on average [over sixty days at present].

At the sound lure location we have a sixty one pest identifications and 204 activations.  As a ratio to activations/deployment of 3.13 activations per day of pest animals have been visible 0.93 times a day.

However it needs to be noted that we have changed the deployment several times since we started - including putting a sound lure externally on the trap box to increase the volume.  When that is considered the activations/deployment increases to 3.56 activations per day and 1.35 times a day. 

We continue to remind oursleves that while these figures are extremely pleasing they are extremely early in our research and data collection.

Possum Activation: Possum Flying

 

This activation involves a little explanation.   From a recent set of data collected on a local farm with the Sound Lure came this image.

It is a brush tailed possum literally flying through the air.   It has received a fright, quite possibly from the Sound Lure itself causing it to fall from the tree.  At this point the camera has activated catching the image of a possum.

Happy Birthday Sound Lure Prototype!

Today marks a special milestone, if a little unusual.  We have a unit celebrating its birthday.   Normally such things would a little issue, but this is relatively significant.  

Our remaining test unit (pictured) has now been operating for a calendar year.   It has done so with the original solar panel (pictured) and the original speaker (which were purchased from Ali-Express for $12.00 NZ and $2.00 respectively.   The unit itself, contained within the IP rated box, connected via bolts has remained working throughout this time and continues to work.    The speaker is showing some sign of wear and tear but it is cardboard based and it has been exposed to the elements, including being deployed in New Zealand for the Winter.     These conditions have included heavy rainfall and the unit has continued to operate either placed inside exisitng trap devices (such as a DOC 200 or DOC 250) or inside a rat tunnel box.  It has also at times been placed directly on top of various traps and locations which has exposed it directly to the elements.

We also have deployed a similar unit to the South Island where it was able to operate in temperatures below freezing (as indicated by the temperature reading from the trail cameras operating in conjunction with it.   We also have had two early versions of the unit at the New Plymouth Airport.   These have been in place since June and are still continuing to operate as expected, despite featuring the original solar panelling (which we have effectively doubled in size since we started).   The final piece of the puzzle being the speakers, which we have just accessed today. 

In summation we believe based on the deployments that have already occurred that we have a unit that is able to operated in external conditions which is reliable, can operate independently and can do so for at least a calendar year (although of course in this case, this is a signpost rather than an end game).

TRC - Environmental Award: Video

Early Promising Results: Curious Minds Possum Project

We have completed some early results in two locations on our Curious Minds Possum Project.   The results to start with, appear to be very positive.   This is with the new sound profile that is being used - our sound lures are remaining during the day and activating at night when the solar panel detects a lowering of the light level.

When this occurs the computer controlling the device starts to operate with the unit emitting a variety of possum sounds which are played at one minute interval.   We have Browning Trail Cameras located to record the interactions with animals at both the locations with and without the sound lures.   This is providing invaluable data as to what is happening at these locations, as instead of the traps providing 'capture' or kill data we can assess the importance or value of the sound lures (or otherwise).    

At our first farm deployment in September.    While the non-sound lure site has remained constant and included 17 pest animals during the course of a month.   On the sound lure site the rat version of the soundlure saw numerous levels of rat activity (and five removals).  There were numerous possum activations, although these tended to be singular and in passing.    Moving the sound lure onto the top of the box resulted in eight Possum activiations during a week.   Following this we removed the sound lure from the locations but kept the cameras in place to monitor activty - this resulted in significant reduced possum activity.   Instead of seeing eight possums in a week in the following two weeks four possums were sited.  Basic mathematics expected us to see four possums and it was half that - there was also a significant relative number of change in activations.   While this is a pleasing indication it should be acknowledge that this is a small sample size and we need to continue to deploy at this location and monitor the results of what we are going to be able to record.

At the second location on another local farm which has just started results have already been significant between the sound lure and non sound lure location.   At the non sound lure site during a two week period there were thirty eight activations from seven possum activations.   At the sound lure site on the same farm there have been thirty three possums recorded during a four day time frame and a hundred activations.   Again these results need to be viewed in the context of the length of time that the data is being gathered this is a small sample of a long term project to track these results.   We will continue to publish and update these results as they are collected.