Egg mayo entree, followed by poisoned rat, kills 94% of stoats

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-08-19 03:00

New Zealand

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Stoats are a massive threat to NZ’s native birds. In a unique study, researchers tested a new way to wipe out these wily, hard-to-catch predators. First they set out egg mayonnaise to lure stoats, who visited the area repeatedly, observed by cameras. The stoats then dined out on the deadly bait of wild-caught rats that had earlier been killed by 1080. In just one week, 94% of the stoats were poisoned using the 1080-laced dead rats. The authors say toxic rat-carcass baits in known stoat locations may help cull individual stoats.