Counting critters can be a bit of a challenge. I do it twice a year, usually before the spring and autumn baitings. The track can change a lot in 6 months. Just finding the track can be tricky enough with 2 seasons of growth, windfalls and my dodgy memory, it can take a bit of searching to locate the tracking tunnels.
With the pests removed, the plants grow unmolested and some tracking tunnels disappear in the undergrowth.
Then there are windfalls that knock tags off trees and bury tunnels. I was pretty sure there was a tunnel under all these rimu branches and finally found it, squashed but salvageable.
The cards tell a story.
Of 10 cards, 2 showed rats had visited, 1 had mice and most had insects. Only 1 card had all the peanut butter eaten. It was the one covered in rat prints. The last card was in a tunnel that had never had a result before in all the years I’ve been checking them. It has very unusual marks. What do you think it was?
Intriguing!! I’m dying to know about that last card.
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No guesses?. Imagine a possum or maybe even a wallaby, too big to fit inside the tunnel, laying with one arm outstretched reaching for the prize in the middle. The peanut butter was untouched. How frustrating!
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Hi, Wendy. How far do you track the animals? I’m assuming it’s a perimeter around your home? Interesting! I have absolutely no idea about the last card. I’m a city girl. 🙂 🙂
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Hi Patti. I track them for about a kilometer from one side of home to the other. The track was put in by a sadist following a straight line up and down a steep ridge. Lol.
The last card is most likely a brush tail possum, but could be a wallaby or feral cat reaching in with one searching paw. It was unsuccessful though, the peanut butter was untouched.
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