September 7, 2019
New Zealand is trying to kill all its rats — "Predator Free 2050."
It's the non-native rat against the native birds. When the rats first arrived — via ship in the 1200s — there were no mammals at all in New Zealand.
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Crikey- they've been there since the 13th century and still can't be called natives? That's worse than Vermont.
I hear cane toads like to eat them...
Create a mousetopia. Affluence kills off sex.
Sounds like a real-life game of whack-a-mole.
Just keeping mice out of my house has required constant vigilance, and an abundance of traps and poison.
Too bad they are confiscating semi-autos down there.
When the rats first arrived — via ship in the 1200s — there were no mammals at all in New Zealand.
There were bats. And Hobbits.
Whose ships?
Well..no mammals except for humans maybe...….
The rats aren't any more non-native than the people, and the rats wouldn't even be there if it weren't for the people, so I don't see how the problem is the rats.
The first rats arrived in New Zealand on the ships of explorers in the late 18th century.
The millennials will now grow up believing they came in the 13th century. Tsk tsk
Whose ships?
I wondered the same thing - if the rats have been there 700 years, why are they now a problem?
A: Different kinds of rats.
There are three kinds of rats in New Zealand, the kiore, the Norway rat (also called the brown rat) which is the biggest and the ship rat (also called the common rat) which is the commonest.
...
Kiore were introduced by early Maori voyagers from Polynesia to New Zealand, while Norway rats and ship rats travelled to New Zealand on whaling ships and with early settlers."
++
I'd guess the kiore rats are inferior to the other rats, just as NZ birds are inferior to other birds, because they evolved on islands.
Apparently the superior European rats wiped out most of the inferior kiore rats.
The way to eradicate rats is to pull them out by the roots.
Yup
I'm interested in how the humans plan to spread genes for rat infertility. It sounds like a Bad Idea, but wasn't there a similar program in the US west for screwflies?
George: The millennials will now grow up believing they came in the 13th century. Tsk tsk
Canoes can count as "ships", right?
The associated image in the clip is European ships, though.
(13th century, 18th century, canoes, ships, Maoris, Europeans, whatevuh. The important thing is, how do you *feel* about the rats? No need to clutter up your mind trying to get the rest of that stuff straight.)
They should just do what Hawaii did in the 1800's to clear the sugar cane fields of rats - import mongooses (mongeese?) to eat the rats. Unfortunately, the rats were nocturnal and the mongooses were not, so they seldom met. Mongooses just turned to birds eggs until they almost wiped out the Hawaii bird population. Then Hawaii put a price on mongooses while they still had the rat problems. Not a lot of brain surgeons involved in the mongoose importation decisions.
In 2003 my wife and I went on a National Geographic cruise around NZ. One stop was at a small island south of South Island (go figure!) where the mammals had been removed to allow bird life to flourish. It had, as partridges walked between our feet and a rare bird suddenly perched on our shoulder. I believe possums are also part of the problem as they eat bird eggs (?).
Most of NZ's cool animals, like 500 pound birds, are already extinct, e.g.
"The Haast's eagle is an extinct species of eagle that once lived in the South Island of New Zealand, commonly accepted to be the pouakai of Maori legend.[1] The species was the largest eagle known to have existed. Its massive size is explained as an evolutionary response to the size of its prey, the flightless moa, the largest of which could weigh 230 kg (510 lb).[2] Haast's eagle became extinct around 1400, after the moa were hunted to extinction by the first Māori.[3]"
So now they're trying to turn NZ into a sort of petting-zoo.
Let me see if i've got this straight?
This GLORIOUS EXAMPLE, that we should all be emulating, has decided that it has a problem with immigrants?
And its solution.... Is GENOCIDE?
I'll stick to america; thanx!
They just need to find out what sauce goes with rat...the rest will take care of itself.
"after the moa were hunted to extinction by the first Māori.
Wait, so "indigenous" "people of color" are actually ruthless predators who destroy ecosystems?
Apparently there’s some controversy about whether humans arrived in New Zealand prior to the 13th century. It is claimed (in “Nature,” not exactly a shabby journal) that there is evidence for humans — and rats — in New Zealand from 200 BC.
"BobJustBob said...
They just need to find out what sauce goes with rat...the rest will take care of itself."
Fava beans and a nice chianti
There were no humans on New Zealand in the 1200s?
Whose ships?
Trump's and America's of course, because it is a bad thing that happened internationally, just like slavery.
We should eliminate alligators before they migrate all over North America due to global warming/ climate change/hurricane maximizer/ whatever climate fraud will be called next.
So bird migration = good
Rat migration = bad
So some immigrants are better than others, or did the birds appear spun out of whole cloth?
Wait, so "indigenous" "people of color" are actually ruthless predators who destroy ecosystems?
What do you think happened to north American horses?
NZ should just collect them en masse, regularly and send pallet-loads of them to New York and LA with instructions to just open the crates upon receiving them.
No one in LA or New York will notice. They've already taken these cities.
One of the Canadian provinces is considered rat free.
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From his base in rural Alberta, Phil Merrill has fielded phone calls from around the world. And whether they’re dialling him up from New Zealand or Ireland, the question is always the same: how do you get rid of rats?
For nearly 50 years, Merrill has been on the frontlines of a singular – and victorious – battle, transforming the western Canadian province into one of the world’s only rat-free jurisdictions.
“We’re winning,” said Merrill. “The poor rat, he does really well back in the 18th century, but in this century he’s struggling.
But save for a few exceptions over the past decades, the province does not have any breeding populations of rats.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/15/alberta-rat-catcher-phil-merill-canada-pest-free
Easier said then done. It can only be achieved by Biological warfare.
Another kind of Rat "The Hollywood/Entertainment" elite have been moving to NZ for the last 10 years, and buying up property. Let's see if NZ can destroy them too.
She said rid the country of "introduced mammalian predators: rats, ferrets and possums".
Small point, but possums are marsupials.
Start giving tax breaks to people who own Rat Terriers.
Small point, but possums are marsupials.
Marsupials are mammals.
Slogan for B.C.: "Even Rats Don't Like Alberta!"
What do you think happened to north American horses?
Also ... the Ice Age megafauna of North America.
Damn those prehistoric North American indigenous peoples!
I believe they said on the "When Whales could Walk" show that NA once had early elephants and big cats until people got to them.
Send them back!
Let the nutria/coypus take over
Put a bounty of $1 per tail. Problem solved in half the time at half the cost. The best rat killers are humans. We have lots of methods in our arsenal. We just need sufficient freedom and motivation, but mostly freedom. We already hate them. We have poison, traps, pellet guns, 22LR, ferrets, and terriers. Set us loose. Any army of 12 year old boys armed with pellet guns and night vision goggles would decimate them, if there was any room left after the grown men grabbed up all the spots.
The best way to reduce the rats' reproductive rate would be to convince them to adopt monogamy and marriage in their culture, so we need very tiny churches. Tiny Planned Parenthood clinics would be another approach that has great promise.
The real problem with rats is their inflated self-esteem. If they knew what everybody thinks of them, they would kill themselves.
wasn't there a similar program in the US west for screwflies?
Yeah, I think I read a technical paper on that once by Jim Taptree/Leantree something like that..
Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aimed at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. [Lemkin].
- genocide (etymonline.com)
Emigration reform to mitigate the progress of immigration reform (i.e. exceeding in the rate of assimilation and integration, gerrymandering districts, and the rat apocalypse) at both ends of the bridge and throughout.
I'd guess the kiore rats are inferior to the other rats, just as NZ birds are inferior to other birds, because they evolved on islands.
Inferior, including dodo dynasties, taking a knee, and other self-defeating choices, perhaps. Also, variations in aggression, ambition, temperance, even masochism, as was observed in the nations and tribes of Africa, America, and every other continent.
… just as NZ birds are inferior to other birds, because they evolved on islands.
Yet, New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides, which evolved on the same half-drowned continent — known as Zealandia — as New Zealand also represents) are perhaps the brightest of that highly intelligent bird genus called crows (corvus).
New Calendonian crows have been observed making tools. Now, quite a number of animals actually will opportunistically use an (already existing) tool if they see it will be helpful to them — but fashioning tools not already ready for use is something else again. Few except basically chimpanzees and humans demonstrate this predilection in the animal world — yet here we see a New Caledonian crow capable of the feat: in this case quickly turning an otherwise useless straight piece of wire (and this particular crow had little previous experience with such things as wire) into a useful hook, capable of being used to draw a food-containing bucket out of a tube.
in this case quickly turning an otherwise useless straight piece of wire (and this particular crow had little previous experience with such things as wire) into a useful hook,
Crows are smart. They can even count to three.
Several years ago a study in New Zealand found that domestic and feral cats were decimating the flightless Kiwi (birds) population. Now a war on rats. Typical. Well, Kiwis (people) love their cats.
Blogger reader said...
“So bird migration = good Rat migration = bad. So some immigrants are better than others, or did the birds appear spun out of whole cloth?”
It is probably another grave social injustice, reader, or the birds are indigenous; perhaps spontaneously generated. You know like life on earth. Lol!
Bagoh said, "Put a bounty of $1 per tail. Problem solved in half the time at half the cost."
I seem to remember reading that the British tried that in India with regard to snakes. They had to end the program when they discovered that people were *breeding* snakes in large numbers to turn in for the reward....
Regarding mammals in NZ, bats are mammals too.
If they figure out how to exterminate rats in NZ, they can do NYC next.
Of course, in New York the rats are unionized, so good luck with that.
Somehow, I don't think the folks who protest against genetically modified food will be onboard with the proposed solution. For the first time, they might actually have a point.
Regarding mammals in NZ, bats are mammals too.
Bats are bugs. Aren't they?
Fernandistein said...
Marsupials are mammals.
Maybe that's what your textbook written by white males says, but they don't identify as mammals.
Nearly all attempts at "natural" solutions to introduced species -- I mean of the "introduce a second species to kill the first one" variety -- end in disaster. There have been a few exceptions. I think the bug (virus or fungus?) used on gypsy moth caterpillars worked pretty well. Certainly it beat the remedies we had when I was growing up in NY, which were "tanglefoot" (impossibly sticky stuff you put rings around all your trees with) and scraping the innumerable egg patches on trees into a can of gasoline. Those suckers ate everything.. In midsummer there was a sound like a continuous light rain; it was actually the fall of countless gypsy moth droppings. Urgh.
But others: The Hawai'ian mongoose fiasco, of course. The Great Lakes are full of invasive fish, shellfish, and plants, some of which were set to kill off others. Do not get me started on kudzu. Though given a choice between kudzu and starlings, I'll take the kudzu, thanks. Damned Shakespearean busybodies were responsible for starlings.
I think it was Australia rather than NZ that launched myxomatosis to kill off the introduced rabbits, though.
"She died, of course".
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