The Times is publishing stories in our digital publication and on our website that are written by local youngsters in our Junior Journalist initiative. Here’s a new report from Junior Journalist Alina Jiang.
Rats are a common pest in Auckland. They can harm our home, wildlife and of course even our wallet! But with these rodents around, what can we do?
That’s what I’ll be explaining today, about the rats in our area. Native New Zealand birds can be easily harmed by these rodents.
One of the bad things rats do is kill our local area birds such as the New Zealand dotterel or shore plover, who are birds who prefer staying on ground to hunt and nest.
This can result in them being put in danger due to the way the rats can eat their eggs, their chicks and even small adult birds.
We’ve got to do something to save these innocent animals from rats!
One community group who’s been doing great work to stop pests is Pest Free Howick who work together to control pests and help the environment.
This group is funded by the Howick Local Board and the Auckland Council, and works together with the community to get rid of mice, rats, and weed plants.
Such as the Moth plant! The worst weed that spreads over land. Another group is the Trap Library.
This is run by groups that include Pakuranga Rotary, and Friends of Mangemangeroa, and works like a book library.
To book a trap you go online and place a hold on your trap, then once you’re done-boom! You’ve got a trap!
This group complements Pest Free Howick and mainly focuses on trapping mustelids and possums, to remove these pests from our local back-yards.
There are also volunteer groups that look after the health of our waterways, streams and creeks such as the Otara Waterways and Lakes Trust.
But enough about these awesome groups, let’s talk about how to identify those rat pests!
There are three breeds of rats: ship rat, Norway rat and the Kiore.
The Norway rat has a thicker and shorter body than the ship rat, and is about 20cm long in size like a small battery or your average school ruler.
The Ship rat is the most common rat out of the three, it has a tail longer than its body unlike the Norway Rat. When it presses forward its ears will cover its eyes.
The kiore is a Pacific/Polynesian rat. An adult Kiore is usually 4cm smaller than a ship rat, but don’t get these two rats confused – because they both look similar.
If you ever find a rat you should contact Pest Free Howick for advice or the Trap Library to borrow a trap.
Rats and mice may look cute but they are actually very bad for you, and are damaging to birdlife and native species, so if you see one roaming around in your garden, don’t feed it or treat it as some pet, get a trap and get rid of it.
- Alina Jiang is in Year 6 at Owairoa Primary School
