Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research
New Zealand's foremost environmental research organisation.
Beaver eradication on Tierra del Fuego
North American beavers were introduced to the island of Tierra del Fuego in 1946 to start a fur industry. However, the introduction has largely been a disaster with the beavers spreading large distances and even swimming the Straits of Magellan to mainland South America. They destroy riparian beech forests, damage roads and are a nuisance to farmers and foresters.
Beavers now occupy about 7 million hectares of southern beech forest, Patagonian steppe and Andean high altitude bogs and in total about 26,000km of waterways. Now, an international team led by John Parkes from Landcare Research has been asked to assess options to manage beavers and whether they could be eradicated from South America.
More: Kararere Kino Issue 12 »Garden bird survey
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Science in Focus - Wildlife Ecology and Epidemiology
The Wildlife Ecology & Epidemiology Team comprises 25 staff with expertise in animal pest ecology, modelling, epidemiology, and control strategies. Our work on pests and diseases include, marsupials (possums and wallabies), mustelids (stoats and ferrets), rodents (rats and mice), ungulates (deer, pigs and thar), birds (starlings and mynas), lagomorphs (rabbits and hares), and diseases as problems (bovine tuberculosis and avian malaria) and as biocontrols (rabbit haemorrhagic disease).
Work focuses on protecting native ecosystems and primary industry through improved understanding of pest responses to management, and the role of pests as disease carriers. This understanding is then used to develop better pest management regimes.
Research has been undertaken for central government (e.g. Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, Department of Conservation), local government (e.g. Southland Regional Council, Environment Canterbury), national agencies (e.g. Animal Health Board, Foundation for Arable Research), international agencies (e.g. United Nations Development Programme, British Ecological Society, The Nature Conservancy), government agencies (Chile, Argentina, New Caledonia, Mauritius), and private companies and conservation initiatives.
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