September 22 2011

Horizons on the hunt for Rooks

Horizons Regional Council is targeting Rooks around the region as the annual eradication programme begins this week.

It is nesting season for Rooks, which means poisoning of rookeries will occur over the next three to four weeks. Land owners with new rook populations on their properties are encouraged to contact the council so aerial poisoning can be carried out across the region.

“Aerial poisoning involves nest baiting using a helicopter. A person is suspended below the helicopter to apply a sticky poison to the nests. The birds then ingest the toxin,” says Horizons Environmental Manager Bill Martyn.

Rooks in our Region are heavily concentrated in Tararua due to climatic conditions and accessibility to cropping, but they are present to some extent across the whole region. Numbers have steadily decreased since aerial control began in 2004, but the birds still breed over a large geographical area. Therefore Horizons is particularly targeting Rooks in outlying locations in order to control the spread. This way it is hoped the cost of eradication will drop as the programme will become more centralised.

Rooks are classed as an animal pest and when left unchecked can create issues of crop damage for farmers. Breeding rookeries are easy to identify as Rooks prefer to set up for breeding high in the canopy of tall pine or eucalyptus trees. The objective for this year is to positively identify and treat all rookery sites.

“We are really pleased with our progress to date and hope to see a significant drop in numbers in the near future,” says Martyn, “we have adopted similar methods to those identified in Canterbury. They saw a dramatic decrease in the population after a targeted aerial programme so we are working towards the same result here.”

ENDS

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