Just in time for the breeding season for endangered dotterels, a Coromandel town is kicking off a backyard trapping movement..

Predator Free NZ Trust has awarded Ōnemana Predator Free $1500 to help households trap pests before they reach Ōnemana Beach.

The funding boost meant 30 households could join the trapping effort, with a goal to reach 50 homes in total.

Ōnemana Predator Free leader Les Fleming told Hauraki-Coromandel Post it had been trying for a few years to launch the initiative, and was excited to have received the funding.

Fleming is part of the dotterel monitoring team and, along with the local Coastcare group, they also protect native oystercatchers, setting up ropes and signs around their nests in the dunes.

“Ōnemana Predator Free assist by laying and monitoring a number of traps on the beach and reserves that catch rats, stoats and hedgehogs that would normally eat the birds’ eggs.

Les Fleming, leader of the Ōnemana Predator Free group in Coromandel.

“Although a large number of rats are caught in the beach traps, a number still get through between the traps laid out and get to the birds’ eggs. Once the rats get to the beach, it is often too late.”

He said Ōnemana Beach lost more than 30 dotterel eggs or chicks every year.

“We now want to catch the rats before they get to the beach by having traps in people’s backyards catching the rats at the house, and therefore stopping the rats going to the beach.”

Predator Free NZ Trust community funding adviser Janine Hearn said twice a year the trust selected predator-free communities nationwide and provided funding for humane trapping materials, support, and advice.

Hearn said it received hundreds of applications yearly, indicating people wanted to remove predators from neighbourhoods and give native species a chance.

“The trapping Ōnemana Predator Free volunteers do in the dunes and fencing off the beach during breeding season is inspiring.

“Expanding into backyards to create a buffer zone to stop predators from getting to the dunes and the nesting shore birds is the next step. Funding their efforts was a no-brainer for us.

“Our goal is to connect the dots in the predator-free puzzle, creating corridors between predator control projects, building buffer zones, and empowering communities to get behind the predator-free movement.

“Seeing residents stepping up to protect vulnerable species that need our help is endlessly inspiring.”

Ōnemana Beach is home to the endangered New Zealand dotterel and some oystercatchers, and areas of the beach were fenced off from September to February to help protect both species during nesting season.

Ōnemana Predator Free was established in 2022.

An example of a Predator Free NZ rat trap.

-NZ Herald,