The Halo Project continues to expand its work west of State Highway 1 to create a buffer spanning 35,000 hectares in the hinterland behind Dunedin. This extension from the Halo’s core area will protect native wildlife, improve forest health, and reduce the risk of re-invasion to the wider Dunedin area where eradicating possums is our main focus.

A grid of automatic self-resetting possum traps has now been in place across Mt Allan for the past three months. In this time, the network has taken out more than 1,000 possums with one device out-performing the others with a whopping 42 possums!

Operations are building on the efforts of OSPRI who are doing possum control across the wider area as part of their TBfree programme. OSPRI has just completed work in Mount Allan, working together will help to keep possum numbers low in the long-term thanks to the Halo Project’s ongoing trap network.

This expansion work wouldn’t have been possible without support from Wenita and New Forests who recently came on board as one of Predator Free Dunedin’s key funders. This partnership will see a network of possum traps through Wenita’s Mount Allan property, extending into nearby Silverstream — a treasured conservation area valued by local wildlife and communities.

Back in the Halo Project’s core area of West Harbour and Mt Cargill, the next step for possums is achieving “zero density”. This means reducing possum numbers to such low levels that individuals are unable to find breeding partners within their home range, meaning they can’t reproduce, and ensuring possum numbers will not increase.

This is yet another line of defence for possum eradication efforts across Dunedin more widely. It creates a buffer for efforts on the Otago Peninsula in the short term and represents a significant step towards achieving eradication in the West Harbour and Mount Cargill area within our lifetime (or, at least, the lifetime of those few lonely possums).

Volunteers and staff continue to service the mustelid trap network spanning 12,500 hectares. Not even the unseasonal snow in October could stop the team from getting out in the field.

But as summer approaches, so does peak stoat dispersal season. As well as being major predators, stoats are lean, mean, breeding machines. Female stoats are already pregnant when they leave the burrow, which also makes them hungry. They will eat up to three quarters of their body weight each day to produce milk. That’s not good news for native biodiversity.

During this period, the Halo Project team increases its trapping effort significantly — moving from a monthly services to every two weeks. So if you’re around for the summer months and want to get involved, why not volunteer?