Molesworth 1080 Study

[Jim_j]

Hopefully not a mistake to bring the dreaded 1080 up on this site but...

There is a news item reporting 90% death rate of deer in a recent study following a 1080 drop in Molesworth.

While it seem to have been done by Landcare - the methodology (aerial counts before and after) - seems a bit "loose" to me?
I could think of a number of variables that could influence aerial counts.
When DoC etc have done this with birds they have fitted tracking devices to individual birds to assess mortality.
While I'd certainly understand deer deaths - 90% seems very high?

This comes after a paper in the Ecology Journal noticed no reduction in deer encounters after 1080 drops in Sth Westland - completely different environments I know but..?

Comments?

Cheers
Jim

[Clinton9]

Death would be 100% not 90% for rats & possums & stoats & feral cats & feral dogs., for NZ native birds"s sake.

[Neil Fitzgerald]

Jim, can you point me to something published on this?
It would be great if we could routinely get 90%+ deer