Feasibility of using wax-blocks to measure rat and possum abundance in native forest

Abstract

Rats and possums are the predominant pest species in New Zealand forests and forest managers need to know when to control them and the success of control. This requires an accurate and practical census method. Existing census methods using footprint tracking tunnels and traps are time-consuming, which lowers the precision of the measures of pest abundance. We examined the feasibility of using a new census method based on the frequency of rat and possum bite marks in wax blocks. Results showed that rat and possum bite marks could be individually identified and appeared to give realistic estimates of pest abundance when compared to existing census methods.