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title: "UPDATED.  Stoats reported on New Zealand’s Great Barrier Island.  Black Petrels at risk as trained dogs are deployed"
---

# UPDATED.  Stoats reported on New Zealand’s Great Barrier Island.  Black Petrels at risk as trained dogs are deployed

UPDATE:  17 February 2019

 No stoats found, search "winding down" but "regular monitoring of traps, tracking tunnels [and] cameras will be necessary".  Read more [here](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12203897&fbclid=IwAR2B7276VGSeLvRZh_i0kYwv4lX8loMSwA5Y75PkdA-FuQwR8BEumHW8TWc).

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 The presence of alien [Stoats *Mustela ermine*](https://predatorfreenz.org/whats-the-story-about-stoats/) [has been reported](https://www.doc.govt.nz/news/media-releases/2019/stoat-hunt-underway-on-great-barrier-island/) earlier this month on [Great Barrier Island/Aotea](https://www.acap.aq/en/news/news-archive/60-2013-news-archive/1361-acap-breeding-sites-no-24-great-barrier-aotea-and-little-barrier-hauturu-islands-new-zealand-only-breeding-sites-of-the-black-petrel?highlight=WyJncmVhdCIsIidncmVhdCIsImJhcnJpZXIiLCJiYXJyaWVyJ3MiLCJubyIsIidubyIsImdyZWF0IGJhcnJpZXIiXQ==) off Auckland at the edge of the Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand.  The island, hitherto Stoat free (although there are both feral and domestic cats *Felis catus*, as well as feral pigs *Sus scrofa* and two rat species present) is one of only two that support breeding populations of the ACAP-listed Black Petrel *Procellaria  parkinsoni* (categorized both [globally](http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/22698150)and [nationally](http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/black-petrel) Vulnerable). The other is the nearby and predator-free [Little Barrier Island/Hauturu](https://www.acap.aq/en/news/news-archive/60-2013-news-archive/1361-acap-breeding-sites-no-24-great-barrier-aotea-and-little-barrier-hauturu-islands-new-zealand-only-breeding-sites-of-the-black-petrel?highlight=WyJncmVhdCIsIidncmVhdCIsImJhcnJpZXIiLCJiYXJyaWVyJ3MiLCJubyIsIidubyIsImdyZWF0IGJhcnJpZXIiXQ==), which supports smaller numbers of breeding Black Petrels.

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Petrels/B/Black/Black_Petrel_by_Dept_of_Conservation_New_Zealand.jpg)

 Black Petrel on Great Barrier Island, photograph by the New Zealand Department of Conservation

 “Conservationists believe at least two of the highly-destructive pests may have found their way to the previously stoat-free island.  Two specialist stoat-sniffing dogs are forming part of a large-scale operation by the [Auckland Council](http://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/articles/news/2019/01/stoat-hunt-underway-on-great-barrier-island/) and the Department of Conservation ([DOC](https://www.doc.govt.nz/)) to find the creatures.  If confirmed, the stoats were likely stowaways on a boat. Because of where the island is in distance from the mainland, really the only way that a stoat will get there is, in a way, human assisted.  A member of the public said they saw the stoats at Medlands Beach [some 12 km from the breeding Black Petrels around the summit of Mount Hobson] on 3 January and reported them the following day.

 DOC and the Auckland Council have set up a network of trail cameras, tracking tunnels and traps which, along with the dogs, will try to confirm and eradicate any stoats.”

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Mitigation/Woody-Stoat-dog-Auckland-Council.jpg)

 Woody, the Department of Conservation's Stoat-hunting dog, who has been deployed to Great Barrier Island, photograph by the Auckland Council

 Read more [here](https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/379943/stoats-on-great-barrier-most-likely-human-assisted?fbclid=IwAR0lAAQwc-efgRkF_xbmxw4TrnGb2fzQvEOblt_9EA35F-fkxaoD3I3Qae0) and [here](https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/01/possible-stoat-sighting-on-aotea-great-barrier-island.html).

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 14 January 2019*