One step closer to possum eradication on the Peninsula

The Otago Peninsula Biodiversity Group is now in its 12th year of working towards possum eradication!

This winter, the team has completed its final knockdown operation across Sector 4. This is the biggest area yet – extending from Portobello towards the city until it hits The Cove. It also includes conservation areas like Sandymount, Sandfly Bay, and Boulder Beach – all major hot spots for possums. More devices were put out in these areas and results already look promising with an estimated 45% kill rate. 

The team has also been working with urban and rural landowners to install devices and cut tracks. The support from landowners has been overwhelming and allowing the team onto their properties has meant stage one of the knockdown went without a hitch. Already, possum numbers have almost halved, with 7% of wax tags used for monitoring showing possum bites compared with 16%.

Meanwhile, the team continues to mop up possum hot spots on the outer Peninsula. Sectors 1 to 3 extend from Portobello to Taiaroa head and out to Cape Saunders. A lean network of self-resetting traps aims to remove the last possums and a network of camera traps helps the team to find animals that are trap shy.

Closer to town, a possum aversion fence has now been completed. It runs across the entire neck of the Peninsula – from Tomahawk Lagoon to close to the harbour. This will slow down any possums looking to re-invade the Peninsula by channelling them along the fence to gaps where traps are hard to avoid. This seems to be working well with 10 possums caught at the bottom of the aversion fence over the last month.

The possum aversion fence.

The Guardians group in Musselburgh, Andersons Bay, Waverley, and Tainui continue to do their part. They are actively maintaining backyard traps and reserve trap lines within the buffer zone. Community members across the Peninsula oversee 860 traps on the ground, together they have removed nearly 5,000 possums since the project began!

It really is all hands on deck as we get down to the final possums. As the saying goes – it takes half the effort to get the last few possums!

It now becomes even more important for the community to tell us about any possums they see on the Otago Peninsula. You can report any sightings, dead or alive, immediately through our Report a Possum form.