Stoats are efficient predators. What can recent NZ research tell us about the best ways to tackle stoats?

Possums, rabbits, hares, wallabies and goats are all on the menu at ‘Raw Essentials’, a pet-food company which strongly believes in feeding our carnivore pets a true carnivorous diet.

The battle is being fought not just on the ground in New Zealand, but also in research labs and computer screens. So what have our researchers working on?

When it comes to possums, Zach Howarth believes in ‘utilising it all’. He’s about to sell his first shipment of meat to pet food manufacturer ‘Possyum’.

An art exhibition is an unusual way to tackle introduced pests.

Marie Haley lives in her great grandmother’s house on the Banks Peninsula land that was first farmed by her French great-great-great grandfather.

Glen Riley, coordinator at Te Nohoaka o Tukiauau, Sinclair Wetlands, 40km south of Dunedin, has been talking with some members of the Ornithological Society recently. According to the ornithologists, spotless crake were seen at the wetlands 30 years ago, but have been rare ever since.

As far as anyone knew, kiwi were long gone from the Houto Forest near Dargaville, until a kiwi was found on farmland just 1km north of the forest.

From the ziplines and swing bridges built high in the canopy of Rotorua’s Mamaku Forest there’s a phenomenal view of what a New Zealand forest looks like when it’s not full of possums and rats.

Otorohanga farming couple Jarrod and Danielle Hawkins said if it rained this summer, they could buy more kill traps for their QE II covenant block.

New Zealand’s whio or blue duck, likes nothing better than the turbulent white water of a fast-flowing mountain river.

In the remote, rural valley of Uruti in North Taranaki, the 16 children at local Uruti School are bursting with pride. They’ve just taken out an Environmental Action in Education Award and have a handsome trophy to prove it.

Bacon, peanut butter and blue vein cheese were all on the menu as the children at Kaipara Flats, Tomarata and Tauhoa Schools experimented to find out what baits worked best to entice predators into their traps.

Imagine this: you’re the new manager of Glenfern, a 260-hectare sanctuary on Great Barrier Island in Auckland.

When Kiwi kids are planning their future careers, there’s an option they may not have considered: working in the possum industry.