Moving Traps on Deer Spur

On a chilly Sunday morning in late May five Project Peel members prepared to walk up Deer Spur, their mission was to relocate some DOC 200 traps from the lower Deer Spur area as these traps had not caught many pests recently. Top Deer Spur trapper Derek Holmes thought it would be good to try them further up the track where he had seen evidence of hedgehog and stoats higher on the mountain.

Deer Spur Trappers

Four Flipping Timmys are also in use on Deer Spur, these are tree mounted Timms traps which have been very successful. There are also two Good Nature A12, automatic resetting traps, on Deer Spur which can catch up to 12 possums.The DRat supervisor traps were removed as they had not caught many rats.

Trap catches are recorded on Trap.nz. In the last year 39 possums, 6 hedgehogs, 3 rats and 2 stoats have been caught.

As the group was setting off a keen young runner was heading up little Mt Peel for her exercise and time out. She stopped for a brief chat to say how her young family also enjoy the mountain and often walk along Deer Spur where the children check every trap looking to see if any pests are caught. They live on a nearby farm and now have their own traps to check on a regular basis.