With Westlake’s Kaitiaki Club, students have the opportunity to not only learn about Aotearoa’s unique flora and fauna, but also practically apply that knowledge in protecting and preserving our local wildlife.
On Friday, 23 May, we made our way to Smith’s bush in order to learn about pest monitoring methods and implement some tracking tunnels involving peanut butter and ink pads. The aim of these monitors which we set out was to gather data on the type of pests that may be present in the area for long term monitoring and future trapping of invasive predators.
After leaving the traps out for a week, Tabitha Becroft from the Auckland Council visited us at school, to teach us about the most common pests here in New Zealand – including possums, ferrets and rats – and help us analyse our results. With Tabitha’s help, we identified the tiny handprint-looking patterns littered over all of the traps as hedgehogs. Despite their non-aggressive nature, hedgehogs are considered pests in New Zealand due to their appetite for insects – native species included. Our findings from this trip provide us with a framework for our plans moving forward – now we are able to focus on finding ways to protect the native insects of Smith’s bush by working to reduce the number of hedgehogs in this area.
It is only with the help of both the Auckland Council and our club leaders who work to organise events like this, that we are able to gain such valuable hands-on experience while helping to preserve and support our local environment here in Aotearoa.
By Isla Thomson and Zara Saito