Morepork thriving areas where rodents poisoned

PHIL DOYLE/Sunday Star-Times

SUCCESS: Research suggests morepork numbers are higher in areas where poison eradication projects had been established than outside the control areas.

Relevant offers

Morepork are thriving in predator eradication areas, despite worries ongoing poison methods of their food source may put the small owl at risk.

Research by University of Auckland student Elisabeth Fraser, and published in the latest edition of the New Zealand Journal of Zoology, suggested morepork numbers were higher in areas where poison eradication projects had been established than outside the control areas.

Previously, there had been fears the owl would be at risk of secondary poisoning, through feeding on rodents and insects that had eaten the poison.

Miss Fraser's research found over twice as many morepork calls were heard at sites across the Waitakere Ranges, West Auckland, where rodents were controlled with poison, than at unmanaged sites.

"Poison is a common method used for managing rodents as a means of protecting native species and ecosystems," Miss Fraser said.

"However, native animals, like the morepork, feed on rodents and other animals, which feed on the poison grains.

"There has been some worry that these native animals may be at risk of secondary poisoning through the foodchain but, at least in the case of the morepork of the Waitakere Ranges, this doesn't seem to be the case.

"In fact, the birds are thriving in these areas, probably due to the eradication of the rats and mice which feed on bird eggs and compete with the owls for food resources," Miss Fraser said.

- NZPA