Had a very interesting and entertaining afternoon, on Sunday 26 June, with Kerryn and the stoat detection trainee, Zip. It was hilarious watching him follow his nose and indicate several areas where stoats might be located.

There was great excitement when Zip located the scat (stoat poo) planted by Kerryn at the top of the valley the day before. He also followed the scent to the stoats in traps along Cape Rodney Road as he had done previously.

The scat was obtained from stoats in captivity at Landcare Research and Kerryn said the next challenge is to get Zip to locate wild stoat scat, as the scent will be different.

Kerryn demonstrated how easy it is to open the DoC200’s using the safety straps. We will aim to have these attached to all the DoC200’s.