Do students have rats in their flats?

City Sanctuary was at Tent City during Orientation Week to find out if students have rats in their flats.

While some have seen rodents lurking in their yard, fossicking through their rubbish and scuttling in their ceiling, others weren’t too sure.

The team were overwhelmed with interest from students who are keen to do their part to help create a City Sanctuary.

More than 100 flats signed up to host a trap in their backyard. They took away chew card monitoring kits to find out for sure whether their flat has rats. Staff will collect results over the next month and follow up with flatters to help them trapping!

85 students also signed up to lend a hand by volunteering in Dunedin City Council reserves and support backyard trapping students. We can’t wait to get stuck in and have our fingers crossed that COVID-19 won’t get in the way like it did last year.

North Dunedin is one of three pilot sites where City Sanctuary are monitoring different trap types (a self-resetting trap versus a traditional snap trap). They hope to find out how effective the traps are at controlling rats and whether backyard trappers are more likely to engage with one type of trap over the other. These pilot suburbs will help inform the team on how to successfully roll out backyard trapping efforts across the city.

If you live in North Dunedin and want to help protect native wildlife, sign up to host a backyard trap or volunteer to help create a Predator Free Dunedin by 2050!