Ferrets sighted on the Chatham Islands could spell disaster for some of the world’s rarest birds.

31/07/2006 00:00:00 Just before Christmas there was a reliable sighting of a ferret on northern Chatham Island and another sighting was made a week later about 40 kilometres away. It is not known whether the sightings indicate that a single animal or two or more ferrets are loose on the island. Forest & Bird spokesman Mark Bellingham said if ferrets became established on Chatham Island, it would pose a high risk of extinction of a range of threatened species, including:
• Taiko, the world’s rarest seabird. Only about 100 remain and there are only seven known breeding burrows, all on Chatham Island.
• Chatham Island oystercatcher, the world’s rarest oystercatcher. The population totals about 300 – 85% of them on Chatham Island.
• Chatham Island pigeon, the world’s rarest pigeon. The population has struggled back up to about 200, with 90% on Chatham Island.
• Canterbury buff weka, virtually extinct on the New Zealand mainland but surviving due to its introduction to the Chathams.

Mark Bellingham said the arrival of the deadly predator on Chatham Island was a crisis of international significance, and all efforts must be made to eliminate them.

‘Ferrets are the most dangerous predators of our native birds and the consequences of this incursion could be catastrophic. There have never been ferrets or other mustelids on Chatham Island before and their arrival now is of serious concern.’ The Department of Conservation is aware of the sightings, but attempts to locate the ferrets with tracker dogs or catch them with traps have been unsuccessful.

Mark Bellingham said efforts must be made to track the source of the ferrets to determine whether there were one or more ferrets loose, and whether any were female. It is currently the ferret breeding season, and if they breed on the island, numbers could quickly increase. A dog handler should be on stand-by on the island to immediately respond to any further sightings, Mark Bellingham said.

He said DOC’s efforts to catch the ferrets were laudable, but responsibility for biosecurity lay with the Chatham Islands Council, which was not adequately funded to deal with serious biosecurity incursions.