Conversion of a Sound Lure to target Rooks

We have recently had a number of events take place that have caused us to focus our engergies in slightly different directions.   We have had visits from film crews from Al Jazeera, participated in the Australian Feral Futures Virtual Students Conference and we had a presentation at Puke Ariki Museum in New Plymouth.

Today we had a visit from Sam, who is the TRC Rook officer.    The Rook, which is considered a significant pest bird has not yet made its way in large numbers to South Taranaki although it has been recently sighted in Hollard Gardens, a significant local location.

The sound lure has been converted into a Rook lure with the idea that the lure can be used to encourage a rook into a trap.    The set up for the unit is essentially the sam set up that has been used for daytime (stoat) profiles.   The only difference in this case would be coding the unit to go silent during the evening as the rook sound lure is not required to be operating.   

We have always thought that there is mulitple purposes for the sound lure as despite having a focus on stoats initially, possums have been shown to be interested and in addition to this feral cats and rats have also made frequent appearances on tracking cameras.

We will be monitoring these results and update them as the trial progresses.

There is additional information on Rooks, relevant to New Zealand on the Pest Detective website located here, this is also where the photograph for this blog post was taken from.

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.

Feral Cat Interacting with Feather

Further to identify the issue of the feral cat interacting wtih the feather sound lure (which has a small motor running in conjunction with the sound lure).

While this has been set up to base itself on attracting possums to the area with a small four watt speaker operating a variety of possum noises.   

Instead what has happened is that a feral cat has been dominating the deployment site for several weeks.   

This cat has been regularly appearing at the sound lure site.   Recently the feather that is working with the lure was placed so it was outside the netting for the rat box.

The result was that we had four intercations during a single evening between the cat and the trap.   The cat ignored the DOC200 containing rabbit meat and instead focussed its attention on the sound lure, and motor.

The cat also went to the extent of removing the feather from the inside of the trap as shown in the photograph.   It visited the site repeatedly during the night, four times in total and was photographed in excess of thirty times.

We have had expressed interest in the past from individuals who are focussed on looking at controlling feral cats and as a result we believe that this current set up would show considerable potential.

Feral Cats Dominating the Deployment

 

We have had significant feral cat activity which is now dominating the first deployment site.   This particular feral animal is showing significant activity and interaction with the sound lure, which is the trial version with the feather operating with a small motor.  This animal is being seen frequently in the area but is returning to the trap/lure and spending particular time focussing on the lure.

The photograph shown left is from a sequence featuring the feral cat.   There are two traps next to each other, the first is a DOC 200 which is baited with rabbit meat.   This is what the cat is sitting on in the photograph.   

The rat box next to the trap is fitted with a black T-Rex trap, with a regular sound lure and the feather motor.   

In the instances of the interactions from this series of photos taken in a single evening the feral cat approaches the location and spends time trying to enter or interact with the sound lure, while not attempting to do so with the DOC 200.   The time frame of the feral cat being involved with the sound lure was in excess of twenty minutes from its arrival at the location of the traps and remaining in the area while the lure repeatedly activated.    

It needs to be noted as well that the noise that is being activated from the sound lure in this case is a possum.   We have experienced in the past significant cat interest in the sound lure when the noise has a cat slant (such as featuring a chick noise).    

Further Developments from Ongoing Projects

 

It is currently the school holidays in New Zealand, we have a number of students who are currently running trials during the school holiday break, focussed on possums and using a sound lure in conjunction with a Timms Possum Trap, as seen left.    We have seen extremely encouraging initial results from these latest trials, including having possums entering into buildings (barns) to engage with sound lures and subsequently traps.   We have also have results coming from outdoor trials of the sound lures - again the initial results from these trials appear to be extremely positive showing increased possum activity at locations where the sound lure is being deployed.   These sites have double blind situations with two different locations on the same farm one featuring a sound lure and Timms and the other just a Timms.   Both locations are being monitored by Browning trail cameras.

At deployment site one we have noticed a significant change in the activity.   We have started in the last two weeks to use the 'feather' unit which is an adapted version of the sound lure.   There is the basic unit but we have the motor working in conjunction with the unit, when the sound lures is activated there is a motor that runs at the same time.   This is currently turning a feather, however we are going to develop this further trying addiitonal material and movement items.   At least one feral cat (pictured) appears to have taken up residence in the area by the river.   The result is that we have seen a significant reduction in mice and rats in the area.   While we have taken a short break with our recording at this location the cat was visible prior to the break starting and is now featuring significantly at the site.   We are not interested in trapping cats at this stage however the cat is shown significant interest in the lure, which is currently making possum noises. (We have in the past seen cats show significant interst in chicks or chirping bird sounds).

Finally we would like to acknowledge the support on Fonterra again to allow our project to continue with a stoat focus.   We also need to thank Bryan and Feral Control who are currently running trials for us using a number of our units.

This trial has not yet been completed however there are already some results of significance - the photograph on the left showing one of the 'distress rabbit' sound lure units which has been deployed inside of a DOC200.  As can be shown from the photograph a stoat has entered the trap and been disposed of as a result.

We are awaiting the results of this trial and looking to modify the units as a consequence of the feedback and the expertise that are available to us.   We will publish the full results of this trial when it is complete.  

Of considerable interest to us is this is the second time of recording a stoat strike on one of the sound lures in an unusually short space of time.  We have previously detailed how at the New Plymouth Airport we caught a stoat within three days of our first deployment at a location that stoats were not suppossed to be at.   While the capture above is not such an area, as stoats were known to be operating here, the capture is in a very short space of time - four days after the setting of the trap.     

Further Unit Experimentation and Possum Preparation

 

Recent test deployments inside outside buildings (barns) have again produced evidence of the potential for the sound lure to operate to draw animals towards a trap area.   In the example shown to the left a student from school has placed a live capture trap in a barn, with the sound lure to the left of the trap.

The brush tailed possum enters the trap, interacts with the food inside the trap, and then leaves the trap to inspect the sound lure, before again entering the trap and this time activating it.    We discussed with the student the potential of preventing this from happening by placing the sound lure adjacent to the rear of the unit, so the possum when interacting with the unit would need to spring the trap to gain access to the speaker which appears to be the target of the possums when it is presented to them.

In the second instance of recent note we have began running tests with the robotic arm.   Our first series of tests have been using the arm by itself and disconnecting the sound element.   The arm is set to operate for randomly lengths of time, when placed inside a DOC 200 it can fit althought it is tight.

Essentially it will operate in tandem with the noise and currently is operating as a feather.   The noise will set off and at the same time the motor will turn.    In the last week this has been deployed at Deployment SIte One.   There has been evidence of some interest from brush tailed possums as shown in the photo although the animals have not tried to interact diretly with the trap, they appear to be observing it from a distance but not as yet engaging with it.   We are shortly going to replace the circuit so that it will create the noise as well as the movement to note any changes or additional interactions.

Second Phase of Testing: Initial Possum Progress

 

Our initial data gathering process for the second phase of data collection is progressing and we are currently preparing for a major push with regards to the locations that we are using.    At the first of these sites we are seeing interaction with the lures as evidenced from examples such as the recent one shown left (in this example the lure is immediately to the left of the Timms trap, wih the solar panel clearly in view).    Where-as we previously were questioning the ability of the Timms trap to activate this have proven to not be the case at this location as we have seen several activations with the trap being sprung, three of which have occurred at the sound lure location and one at the non sound lure location.   Again we do not wish to pre-empt the data being collected but we are seeing a pattern that appears to be repeating itself as shown elsewhere in testing where there is heightened activitiy with the sound lure location, including possums interacting directly with the speaker or the lure.   

This includes the barn instance previously shown here where a brush tailed possum active in the area has gone into a barn location where a sound lure has been activating indoors, inspected the lure and then activated a Timms possum trap.   

We are also running lure trials focussing on stoats, with the help of Bryan and our friends at Feral Control, which is being conducted with units supplied and funded by Fonterra.     

We are awaiting these results but we have already had evidence of significant possum activity targetting the units as they have been discharging noise.   This compliments the work that we have done at numerous locations as brush tailed possums have approached the boxes, interacted with them including setting them off and attempting to enter them etc.