Grandmother buys 12 rat traps for Christmas presents

A Taranaki grandmother who bought 12 rat-traps for her mokopuna says she wants them to give the koha back to taio (the environment) this Christmas.

A Taranaki grandmother who bought 12 rat-traps for her mokopuna says she wants them to give the koha back to taio (the environment) this Christmas.

The grandmother, who asked not to be named so the gifts were still a surprise to her family, says her twelve mokopuna will find their traps unwrapped under the Christmas tree or on an outdoor treasure hunt.

“They won’t be wrapped because that’s more waste in our environment. It’s important we’re teaching our mokopuna the importance of looking after our natural resource and environment, and teaching them to be conservationists,” she says.

Other Taranaki residents who want to give the gift of biodiversity this Christmas can get a $10 rat-trap and box from a New Plymouth pop-up shop.

The Towards Predator-Free Taranaki pop up shop is on the corner of Devon St and Liardet Street. It is open from:

9am to 5pm weekdays

10am-2pm Saturday

9am to 12pm Friday December 21 and Monday 24 December

It opened last week and will close on December 24th so Christmas shoppers and/or people who want to get trapping, to protect biodiversity in their backyard, need to be quick!

Towards Predator-Free Project Manager Toby Shanley says the child and pet safe traps and boxes are being sold by Towards Predator-Free Taranaki, just in time for shoppers to put one under the Christmas tree for that person who has everything.

“A rat-trap and box is the gift that will keep on giving - protecting native wildlife and plants with every rat trapped in your backyard,“ Mr Shanley says.

Since the project launched in June this year, approximately 2500 traps have been distributed through the urban project, mainly to urban NP properties. Around 1000 additional traps will be deployed throughout New Plymouth District Council reserves over the next two months.

There are 27 schools involved in the project, so far, monitoring wildlife and predators, making and setting traps, recording data and helping to distribute traps to the community. Other community groups are also becoming involved, including Rotary groups and the Purangi Kiwi – East Taranaki Environment Trust.

New Plymouth has the largest percentage of indigenous plant cover out of any city in the country. To protect this, one in five houses in New Plymouth need to trap in their backyard, helping native plants and wildlife by removing rats, as part of Towards Predator-Free. So far about 2,500 rat traps have been deployed in New Plymouth district, mainly in backyards.

Find out more about the region-wide project here: https://www.trc.govt.nz/environment/working-together/pf-taranaki2050/