Last year the National Park Service removed 56 percent fewer predators from the Cape Hatteras National Seashore than it did in 2010.
In 2011, according to the Park Service predator management summary, a total of 263 targeted species were removed. That is considerably fewer than the 594 that were removed last year.
The animals trapped in 2011 included 117 raccoons, 37 opossums, 26 minks, 33 nutria, 41 feral cats, eight coyotes, and one red fox.
The feral cats were captured in live cages and taken to the Dare County SPCA. The other animals were killed or euthanized.
That?s still a lot of animals, but it?s far fewer than the 130 raccoons, 111 opossums and 220 opossum kits, eight mink, 47 nutria, five gray foxes, two coyotes, nine red foxes and 61 feral cats that were trapped in 2010.
In response to a request from The Island Free Press, the seashore sent the 2011 predator management summary, which is very brief and much less detailed than its 2010 predator management report.
In the summary, the Park Service notes that the lead predator management biologist conducted a majority of the trapping working 10 consecutive days and shutting down trapping efforts on his off days. This, the report says, allowed the park to focus on recent mammalian predator activity and target predators that were a direct threat to protected birds.
The result of that effort, the report says, was a total of 7,476 total traps set, compared to 11,549 in 2010.
?As we learn more, we get more efficient,? said Randy Swilling, the seashore?s natural resources program manager who supervises the trapper.
The new focus apparently also helped the seashore to reduce the number of incidental captures to 44 in 2011, down from 98 in 2010.
Last year?s incidental captures included clapper rails, boat-tail grackles, Eastern cottontail rabbits, American crows, and otters.
The report says that some of these animals were caught in live cages and released unharmed and that the seashore biologists think that some rabbits and birds returned to the traps and were caught and released several times. Therefore, the report notes, the 44 incidental captures are a maximum number.
The report says that:
- All predator management activities were in accordance with Best Management Practices (BMPs) specified by the U.S. International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (IAFWA 2006). BMPs were developed to provide wildlife management professionals with the appropriate guidelines necessary to ensure improved animal welfare in trapping programs.
- All trapping/animal capture was conducted in accordance with internal guidance on the subject, which restricts such activities to within one mile of where protected bird species were located during the past three years.
- And that all actions were conducted in accordance with conditions established in the annual Wildlife Take Permit issued to the seashore by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
It?s good to know that fewer animals were killed last year to protect the nesting birds on the seashore.
However, killing any animals to save other animals is one part of the seashore?s natural resource management mission that most people continue to have difficulty accepting.
And reasonable people have difficulty accepting why environmental groups, such as Defenders of Wildlife, don?t blink at eye at the number of animals that are killed to only minimally or modestly increase shorebird nesting success.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Click here to read the 2010 Predator Management Report.
Click here to read the 2011 Predator Management Summary.
