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UPDATE 7 December

Read the latest news of the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project ín the project's latest blog and also in the latest issue (No. 9 of November 2001) of MIPEP's newsletter Macquarie Dispatch.  Click here to access the earlier numbers.

To date 13 rabbits have been hunted down and killed since the 2011 bait drop that ended in July.

"Four months hunting has been completed and the rabbit tally currently sits at 13. The last two months have been more productive from a rabbit tally point of view with two rabbits in October and six in November."

Evidence of breeding by rabbits after the poison exercise been obtained as shown by the following quote from the 5 December blog.

 "A new benchmark was set this month with three rabbits killed in one day. Following on from Melissa (assisted by others) getting a female rabbit that showed signs of having dropped a litter, Sandy did some detailed searching in the area. She found four small rabbits, known as runners, in three burrows over two days, in an area about 300m from Melissa's rabbit."

A luta continua!

UPDATE 13 November

After this year's baiting operation signs of rats and mice have still not been seen on Macquarie Island, according to the latest entry in the MIPEP (Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project) blog, dated 8 October (click here).

Other news is that since the bait drop six rabbits have now been found and killed by the hunting teams, but there seems to be still at least a few more to more to track down: " [i]n the meantime more sign has been found in several locations further down the island and the team is hard at work trying to catch the bunnies responsible."

To read of weekly happenings on "Macca", including of the MIPEP hunting teams and their dogs, visit "This Week at Macquarie" .

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Northern Giant Petrels from Macquarie Island get to the Auckland Islands, but then succumb to the effects of poison

Four Northern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus, all males, including one bird banded at Macquarie Island, were recovered dead on the Auckland Islands south of New Zealand in August 2010.  This information is summarized in Australia's Implementation Report to the ACAP Advisory Committee's Sixth Meeting, held at the end of last month in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Livers excised from the Auckland Island carcasses all tested positive for brodifacoum, the poison used in rodent and rabbit bait as part of the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project (MIPEP) during 2010 and 2011.  It thus seems probable that all four birds came from that island and were victims of non-target poisoning from the 2010 bait drops (click here).

Aerial-baiting operations resumed in May 2011 and the full complement of bait had been spread by July 2011. Significant efforts were made to minimise non-target deaths, and to date, an additional 367 Northern Giant Petrel carcases were detected.

The good news is that since the 2011 bait drop on Macquarie very few rabbits have been seen, with only four killed by the hunting teams since early August. In addition, no live rodents have been seen since shortly after the start of the second bait drop

A successful eradication of the three pest species will result in the broad-scale island restoration, with significant benefits to a wide range of plant and bird species, including the seven ACAP albatross and petrel species.

With thanks to Rosemary Gales, Ian Hay and Keith Springer for information.  4 October 2011

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"This week the next phase of the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project (MIPEP) commenced. With the baiting programme successfully completed it is expected that rats (and hopefully mice) will have been eradicated from the island. Rabbits, however, are still likely to occur in very small numbers in some parts of the island. Over the next few months there is a critical window in which to hunt and eradicate these surviving animals, before they are likely to find each other and begin breeding, and before the vegetation begins to grow back and provide cover for the animals.

Six teams, each composed of a hunter, a dog handler and two dogs, headed out into the field on Tuesday [2 August]. Their first couple of days were spent getting to the huts from which they will work. This was no easy task as they carried packs weighing between 25 and 30 kilograms. Each team is working in a different part of the island - searching for any signs of rabbit presence. Signs include chewed vegetation, dung, tracks on snow, and the dogs will work on scent detection. The teams will be out for almost four weeks before they return to the station for a rest and a clean-up, and then head out again."

Information from http://www.antarctica.gov.au/living-and-working/stations/macquarie-island/this-week-at-macquarie-island/page?id=45781&st=Macquarie&dt=MjAxMS0wOC0wNQ.

See also the latest addition to the MIPEP Blog by hunter Tom Ralph (for 31 July).

5 August 2011

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Visit http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/?base=15267 for the latest entry in the MIPEP blog with news of the final bait drop on 9 July ("...68 days with aerial baiting permissible on 23 of them and all four aircraft operational on 22 of those 23 days, testament to the skill and dedication of the Helicopter Resources team. Over 500 loads and 12,000 individual bags of bait...").  It is considerered that concerted efforts are required from now on to hunt out the remaining rabbits before the task becomes overly difficult due to the expected recovery of the vegetation over time.

The latest edition of the weekly on-line newsletter from Macquarie Island also gives information on the preparation of carrots for rabbit baiting (and much else besides).

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Issue No. 8 of the Macquarie Dispatch,  newsletter of the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project (MIPEP) for July 2011 has now been released (click here).

In the newsletter it is revealed that 591 rabbit carcasses have been found and buried on the island up to the third week of June.  As a consequence non-target mortality due to secondary poisoning of Northern Giant Petrels Macronectes halli and Sub-Antarctic Skuas Catharacta antarctica has been reduced in comparison to the aborted 2010 poisoning effort when 883 birds were found dead after only a small part of the island had been treated with poison bait (click here).  As of 19 June this year 523 birds have been found dead, about half of which were Kelp Gulls Larus dominicanus.

Information is also given on the release of Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus in 200 kg of carrots.

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Click here to read all about the 12 rabbit-hunting dogs now on Macquarie Island  by Gary Bowcock, MIPEP Supervising Dog Handler and to read an interview with Keith Springer, MIPEP Project Manager.

[5 July 2011]

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The Australian Minister for Environment, Parks and Heritage, Brian Wightman, has welcomed news baiting has been completed on Macquarie Island, signalling a major step forward in the eradication of three pest species and the eventual restoration of the island's significant natural values.  Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service staff and contractors have now completed two whole-of-island bait drops, with only small areas such as offshore rock-stacks left to complete.

Mr Wightman said the project to eradicate European rabbits, ship rats and house mice from the 12 800-ha island was the largest yet attempted in the world for three pest species.

Since completion of the second bait drop, only three rabbits have been sighted on the island, from a population estimated at more than 100 000.  Teams will disperse around the island in the coming weeks to identify further the number and location of surviving rabbits. No sign of rats has been detected since the first bait drop in May.

The number of non-target species impacted by baiting has been minimised, with a total of 855 birds affected to date. The introduction of Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus on the island earlier this year drastically cut rabbit numbers which resulted in fewer carcasses on the ground and a reduction in secondary poisoning among non-target species.   Another key factor in reducing non-target species mortality has been an increased effort by specially dedicated ground crews collecting and burying poisoned carcasses after baiting.

Twelve trained hunting dogs are already on the island ready to begin the next phase of the operation, hunting down the rabbits that survived the baiting project. Hunters will work with the dogs and their handlers to dispatch any rabbits found. This is expected to take up to five years.  The team involved in the baiting operation is expected to return to Hobart in late July.

Taken from http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?sys=News Article&intID=2328.  [1 July 2011]

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News from the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project Blog:

"Since Fletcher Anderson's posting in May, baiting progress has continued at the same exceptional rate. By Sunday 19 June, the baiting progress reached 199.99% - nearly two whole-island drops complete!

As pilot Bryan Patterson was on the very last load the cloud descended and put a halt to the baiting for the day, leaving us an agonising 6 ha short of completing the second bait drop (of the island's total 12 800ha)!! The pilots have done an excellent job getting the bait out, giving us bait loaders no time for rest on the ground feeding the big steel bait buckets.

The helicopter engineering team have also done an excellent job (between planking on the fuel drums), in keeping the machines in good order and in the air, and the bait buckets fine-tuned and reliable. They are the first out and last in, making sure that the equipment vital to the project's success is ready for the next day.

In between progressing the baiting, we have been kept very busy with dismantling the bait pods for return to Tasmania, and since we have now finished baiting from the Hurd Point and Green Gorge baiting depots, the sites will be cleaned up and all unused materials flown back to the station during the next clear weather. This involves burning the spoilt bait and dismantling bait pods.

Other works being completed in preparation for the hunting phase is the commissioning of the hunters' huts, and the resupply of the established huts. The hunters' huts are a cosy water tank, converted to a hut with essential amenities for field life. These are placed throughout the island, and will be the home for the hunting team for their time in the field.

The Non-Target Mitigation Team has also been kept very busy. Their objective is to remove all poisoned carcasses from the food chain, thus reducing scavenging bird deaths. With the island totally baited, the whole island needs to be regularly scoured for carcasses. The baiting teams have been rotating into field life too, and when the weather does not allow baiting, the teams are off on the mitigation work as well.

The mitigation work also allows us to get an idea of what surviving rabbits are out there. The sightings of live rabbits are very few and far between, and these sightings have been in areas which have since been baited again. Hopefully by the time that the hunting phase of the project begins, there will either be none, or only a handful of surviving rabbits."

News from Lachlan Francis - bait loader - 22 June 2011

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Following the 100% coverage achieved with the first bait-spreading operation, the second helicopter run by Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project (MIPEP) had reached 41% coverage by 10 June, according to the latest This Week at Macquarie Island.  Teams have also been working right across the island searching for poisoned rabbit carcasses on the surface and burying them out of reach of scavenging birds.  This is to reduce the risks of secondary poisoning, which became a significant issue following the aborted operation last year when only a small part of the island coudl be baited due to prevailing bad weather that halted flying for weeks at a time.

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A view from the top; a helicopter pilot's perspective by Fletcher Anderson - 28 May 2011

Read how the helicopters drop poison bait on Macquarie Island on  the MIPEP blog at http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/?base=15267.

[Posted 2 June 2011]

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This week the programme achieved a very important milestone. 100% of the island has had bait coverage. This will now be repeated to ensure that any rodents or rabbits that did not find and consume bait have a second opportunity.

You may wonder why this is such an important milestone. Last year weather conditions made bait laying very difficult and over a period of two months only 8% of the island was baited.  The wind and weather conditions at the island make flying helicopters with bait buckets suspended below them difficult. It is also necessary to ensure that no areas of the island miss out on bait because it gets blown off-target.

Over the last month whenever wind conditions were good (that is below 30 km/h) and there was no low level cloud over the island, baiting was been carried out.  The working conditions for the people loading bait, hooking up, re-fuelling and flying helicopters are not easy; it has been between 2 degrees C and 6 degrees C, and this is particularly chilly, with a wind of 15-20 km/hr. Bait loading is hard physical labour.

Taken with acknowledgement from http://www.antarctica.gov.au/living-and-working/stations/macquarie-island/this-week-at-macquarie-island/page?id=39970&st=Macquarie&dt=MjAxMS0wNS0yNw== where several pictures of the baiting operation may be viewed.

[27 May]