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Landcare Research Indicator: Animals in routine field trapping projects

Indicator details:

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Number of studies	32	22	28	25	24	26	18	19	19
Number of target animals captured	9,122	10, 307	8,631	11, 845	9,838	10, 720	8,984	6,489	5,675
Number of non–target animals captured	1383	1944	673	619	391	460	248	520	177
(% of total captures)	(13%)	(16%)	(7%)	(5%)	(4%)	(4%)	(3%)	(7%)	(3%)
Number of non–target indigenous animals captured	224	322	179	46	72	96	62	22	44
(Number of species)	(4)	(8)	(6)	(6)	(11)	(11)	(9)	(9)	(4)
Number of non–target introduced animals captured	1,159	1,622	494	573	319	364	248	498	150
(Number of species)	(19)	(22)	(17)	(15)	(19)	(17)	(11)	(11)	(13)
Number of nights of leg–hold trapping	38, 544	41, 295	25, 626	24, 555	20, 845	18, 203	5,922	1,5867	11,322
Number of non–target animals caught in leg–hold traps	1134	1517	204	81	207	216	69	35	66
Capture rate	0.94%	0.67%	0.80%	0.33%	0.99%	1.19%	1.17%	0.22%	0.58%
(Number of species)	(19)	(19)	(8)	(10)	(9)	(12)	(5)	(3)	(6)

The number of target animals captured by Landcare Research declined further this year to 5675, the lowest since records began.
The number of non–target vertebrate captures also continues to decline, and at 177 for the calendar year is easily the lowest on record (cf. the figure of 1944 non–target captures in 2001).
Two robins found dead in traps targeting rodents represent the only native species killed as bycatch. With the exception of 19 endemic skinks captured and released unharmed in traps also primarily targeting rodents, only 4 other native animals were caught (3 kea and a hawk, all released apparently uninjured).

Covered in reporting? Yes

Current as at 30th June 2009