City Sanctuary team back for for 2023!

The City Sanctuary team is excited for the year ahead and plan to have a strong focus on defending the boundaries of other projects, namely the Halo Project and Otago Peninsula Biodiversity Group from possum re-invasion. To do this, the team will be working with hundreds of Dunedin residents to;

• Expand predator control to new suburbs and reserves

• Increase backyard trapping participation

• Bring the community on board to manage trap lines across reserve lands.

City Sanctuary team back for 2023

One of the interesting aspects of an urban project is the diversity of properties the team works across. For example, they have recently partnered with the St Clair Golf Club to control possums, rats and stoats across the course as part of their habitat restoration work.

Balmacewen Golf Club will also soon be teeing off their pest control efforts. Both of these golf clubs border important habitat for native birds so it’s fantastic to be helping protect the wildlife that use and move through the greens.

St Clair Golf Club with one of their new traps from City Sanctuary

Meanwhile at Palmers Quarry near Ravensbourne, the team has been trialling AT220 self-resetting traps to target possums. The bush on the land is dense and the terrain rough so it’s a good location to trial these traps that don’t need to be checked as often as a manual trap. Impressed with the team’s predator control efforts on their property and surrounding reserves, Palmers Quarry gifted a generous donation toward trapping hardware.

City Sanctuary has also been hard at work extending their monitoring network. This will help them to measure the impact of predator control and identify where trapping efforts need to be focused. Monitoring is particularly important in boundary areas where the team must detect zero possums in the future to ensure there is no invasion into the other project areas.

One of the new monitoring tools the team has been trialing is the ‘hair seeker’ device which detects fur from passing animals.

‘Hair seeker’ devices which detect fur from passing animals, installed as an additional monitoring tool by City Sanctuary

In coming months, the City Sanctuary team will be finalizing possum trap networks in coastal suburbs and beginning operations in the western suburbs.

To find out more about the operating areas, click on the highlighted regions of the map below.

In areas that already have good possum trap densities, the focus is on maintaining engagement from backyard trappers and frequently reviewing trap lines to ensure they are laser-focused on targeting remaining predator stragglers. As part of this, the team will be increasing volunteer participation on trap lines around the city and they’ll need your help! Sign up to volunteer here and join the amazing crew of dedicated trappers or host a trap in your backyard!

City Sanctuary are also continuing to support other local community trapping groups such as the Brighton Trapping project, the Chain Hills Restoration Project and Aroha Kaikorai Valley.

Keep an eye out for the public events City Sanctuary will be holding this year including a trapping upskill event, a trap building workshop and a bird identification course!