It is obvious that the only data considered reliable in the 1080 debate is that supplied by DOC. In this example of their data certain Kea were radio tagged to asses the death rate caused by 1080. 'DOC fitted radio transmitters to 29 West Coast kea - 10 in Arawhata Valley, two in the Hohonu Range, and 17 near the (Franz) and Fox Glaciers - to see if they survived 1080 drops. All (tagged) birds in the first two areas survived, but seven near the glacier died. Testing confirmed 1080 poisoning.'( NZ Herald July 30th 2008) Now on the face of it this seems ok, but if you imagine that for every 100 birds in the area, by my reckoning, and I am not a mathematician, 41 Kea were killed by the D.O.C .(41,000 per100,000) And then I am led to believe that by some miracle bordering on Divine intervention none were killed anywhere else. Now I may be nuts or a conspiracy theorist or born at night, but I was not born last night and I do not consider these numbers acceptable, nor am I inclined to believe that no 'collateral damage' occurred in the other areas. Records of Kea deaths (by 1080) have been documented as early as 1964 (Spurr, 1979; 1999) According to my book of Extinct NZ birds, written by Alan Tennyson the main cause of bird extinction in NZ are, in order, Humans, Rats and dare I mention them, the sacred NZ cat. The Possum, that gets all the attention is at the bottom of a long list (14th), and 'may have' caused the extinction of one species, the South Island Kokako. May have. I don't have the answer to the possum poison thing, but I think we are playing a very dangerous game spreading many tons of the most powerful poison registered with the U.N. in a blitzkrieg fashion all over this country. I am old enough to remember the great panacea for the worlds ills known as DDT and that the ‘ignorant masses’ somehow were aware of the dangers and that the experts rubbished them at every turn. I hope it doesn’t happen again.
In fact - it was not aerial 1080 operations in the Pureora Forest that has allowed some Kokako to survive - it was ground based trapping. (and as for Robins, up to 40% are killed in each aerial drop - (DoC research - presented in Poisoning Paradise documentary). The DoC study on Mapara showed 4 consecutive aerial 1080 drops, one year after another. It was not until ground control replaced the aerial operations that the Kokako numbers started to return to pre-drop counts. It was also proven that aerial 1080 did not reduce stoat numbers in Mapara - hence the 1000's of stoat traps placed around Mapara. 1080 is a poison, it kills anything that eats it, in suficient quantity (which is very little). 1080 is not a viatimin. 1080 is not a growth hormone, and it is not medicine. It is tasteless. It is odourless. It has no antidote. 1080 is mixed with an attractive food, and then dropped, indiscriminately, from helicopters. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that so many non-target species are killed and sub-lethally poisoned in aerial operations. New reasearch is currently underway that is developing sensible, effective solutions to aerial poisoning operations. And after a billion dollars has been spent by the bureaucracies DoC, AHB, and regional councils - providing their "poisoning solutions" (and taking into consideration that we still have 70 million possums) - it is ironic that this research is not being initiated by DoC and their toxin spreading buddies, but rather - caring, responsible, unfunded, members of the public.
I am extremely surprised at the comments made by everyone. The impacts of introduced mammalian pests in New Zealand far outweigh the impact of 1080 poisoning. After watching a few emotive, unscientific tv/dvd documentaries everyone is suddenly an expert. If anyone bothered to actually read scientific research (not only DoC funded work) it would become apparent that we need to keep pest numbers down and currently 1080 is a viable option. Kokako and robin and numbers have increased significantly in Pureora forest following 1080 poisoning. I suggest that the bent spoon award might be a little harsh. However, emotive documentaries should always be viewed with some skepticism and viewers should always attempt to find out the facts about as much as possible prior to internet slagging.