They're using baited peanut butter. How many pets (specifically dogs) are going to die as a result of this exercise in expensive, naïve futility..?
Absolute bollocks. The whole article is. Sure, this works on small, unpopulated sub-Antarctic islands, but there is zero chance of this working for the whole country. Zero...
Tom Scott has a video about the efforts. The traps have a small entrance that's only a couple inches across. Any full grown cat or dog wouldn't fit through the entrance. It has two layers of grates that would prevent a cat or dog from losing a paw.
What about all the other small animals that can get into this and eat the peanut butter? I know in north America we have tons of small mammals etc that would die in these traps
Mustelids especially due to their inherent curiosity and need to investigate tunnels. Conversely, it's why they can be so easy to trap when you want to.
NZ, oddly, hardly has any native mammals (at least large ones)…
I assume they must have some small ones, though. And probably the keas (crazy ground-dwelling parrots that eat fucken everything, even car window seals) would stick their heads in to investigate, if nothing else…
It certainly reeks of “unintended consequences” to me.
Like 1080 poison (for foxes, mostly) in Australia…
Read the article (and a corresponding National Post one) - interesting.
A few differences: for some reason, it seems rats arrived in Alberta remarkably late (apparently), thus, the province was “prepared”…
Also, it’s entirely inland, which means no rats arriving on ships (unlike Kiwiland), but also, as I pointed out, means it is surrounded by “not rat-free” provinces…
Also, weirdly, that’s Rattus norwegicus (the Norway rat), not Rattus rattus - yes, that’s its real name (the black or ship’s rat)…
Black rats are, I believe, somewhat more tenacious and, let’s say, hard to get rid of…
They’re the ones we mostly have over here. No idea why one lot went to Alberta and the other didn’t, but there you go…
Like bloody red squirrels, which I’ve never seen, vs the ubiquitous brown/grey ones…
They're using baited peanut butter. How many pets (specifically dogs) are going to die as a result of this exercise in expensive, naïve futility..?
Absolute bollocks. The whole article is. Sure, this works on small, unpopulated sub-Antarctic islands, but there is zero chance of this working for the whole country. Zero...
Idiotic AF.
Tom Scott has a video about the efforts. The traps have a small entrance that's only a couple inches across. Any full grown cat or dog wouldn't fit through the entrance. It has two layers of grates that would prevent a cat or dog from losing a paw.
That's enough for some dogs and definitely enough for cats
I don't think any cat would be interested in peanut butter.
Every first world country exterminates stray dogs and cats on the regular.
What about all the other small animals that can get into this and eat the peanut butter? I know in north America we have tons of small mammals etc that would die in these traps
Mustelids especially due to their inherent curiosity and need to investigate tunnels. Conversely, it's why they can be so easy to trap when you want to.
NZ, oddly, hardly has any native mammals (at least large ones)…
I assume they must have some small ones, though. And probably the keas (crazy ground-dwelling parrots that eat fucken everything, even car window seals) would stick their heads in to investigate, if nothing else…
It certainly reeks of “unintended consequences” to me.
Like 1080 poison (for foxes, mostly) in Australia…
Yeah but they hadn't been culturally enriched by then....
But… If the surrounding provinces aren’t, could they not just hop those land borders..?
They’re rats. Sure, there might be quarantine measures in place, but I sincerely doubt the possibility of keeping them out completely…
As a biologist, I’m happy to be proven wrong though, lol…
Read the article (and a corresponding National Post one) - interesting.
A few differences: for some reason, it seems rats arrived in Alberta remarkably late (apparently), thus, the province was “prepared”…
Also, it’s entirely inland, which means no rats arriving on ships (unlike Kiwiland), but also, as I pointed out, means it is surrounded by “not rat-free” provinces…
Also, weirdly, that’s Rattus norwegicus (the Norway rat), not Rattus rattus - yes, that’s its real name (the black or ship’s rat)…
Black rats are, I believe, somewhat more tenacious and, let’s say, hard to get rid of…
They’re the ones we mostly have over here. No idea why one lot went to Alberta and the other didn’t, but there you go…
Like bloody red squirrels, which I’ve never seen, vs the ubiquitous brown/grey ones…