On Friday, 17 July Jo Evans and Susan Gibbings assisted Cam Rathe setting up the new stoat line. With the 5 traps that Cam had brought they had 9 to set up in the valley. They placed the first on the Erikson’s main track down to the wetland, on a corner beside the large old pine tree. The rest (8) were spaced at roughly 100-150 pace intervals up the valley near the stream.
#1 Start of the Valley Track on the edge of Erikson’s wetland
#2 Watkinson’s stream crossing by rope swing
#3 Old pump stand
#4 Harvey’s stream crossing
#5 Near side waterfall
#6 Across stream (W side)
#7 Above rapids (E side of stream)
#8 Just before bottom of Gundy’s track (E side of stream)
All traps were set with fresh rabbit meat (from Cam’s first shooting session).
The traps set up on the baitline along the BNZ track were checked and contained the following:
No.1 weasel
No.2 stoat
No.3 weasel
No.4 tripped but no catch
No.5 stoat
Since then, another two stoats have been caught and 2 large rats.