Classifying Information

Elimination of pests could be worth more that 2 billion dollars to the NZ economy.

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Preservation of introduced species such as deer, goats, pigs and trout is just as important as supporting populations of native animals such as birds, bats, frogs and fish.

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Sodium fluoroacetate (1080) is rapidly metabolised by soil microbes and rendered harmless to mammals, including humans. Studies have shown that even moderate rainfall breaks down bait pellets, releasing their sodium fluoroacetate poison into the soil, making the operation ineffective.

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Possums are vectors of bovine tuberculosis (mycobacterium bovis), which is a major threat to dairy, beef and deer farming industries. Infected animals are prevented by law from sale, or slaughter, and are unable to be moved from the farm on which their infection was discovered.

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University researcher Pippa Vulpecula has been recording possum and native bird population numbers in Aorangi Forest Park. Clear evidence exists that pest numbers drop significantly immediately after a 1080 drop and that native bird populations remain relatively unaffected.

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“1080 kills every living thing on a non-discriminatory basis – possums, rats, birds (native and non-native), insects, worms, bees, fish, butterflies."

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The use of 1080 in New Zealand is widely considered to be the most effect tool currently available for controlling possums over large areas.

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Sodium fluoroacetate (1080) is an organofluorine compound with the formula FCH₂CO₂Na. It is colourless, with a taste similar to that of table salt, and is used as a metabolic poison. Potassium fluoroacetate occurs naturally as an anti-grazing metabolite in some plants. It can also be produced synthetically.

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Future generations will not be able to experience the wonder of the “dawn chorus” when thousands of native birds welcome in the rising sun with a variety of calls, chirps and whistles that international experts have described as unique to New Zealand’s native forests.

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As of 2015, 79% of our birds, 90% of our lizards and all of our frogs are threatened with extinction. In the 1970s, brown kiwi occupied 25% of our native forest. By 2002, this was down to 10% and we are losing a further 2% of kiwi populations each year.

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