Source: MIL-OSI Submissions
Source: Predator Free 2050
PF2050 Ltd Science Director Professor Dan Tompkins said the funding is starting to tackle some of the biggest hurdles that need overcoming for mission success.
“When we look at our current approaches for predator management, and what these can achieve both now and likely in the future, we see some capability gaps. Most critical is the need for new approaches for predator eradication at greater scale in New Zealand’s backcountry,” Prof Tompkins said.
Funding from Vote Conservation and the Government’s Jobs for Nature programme is being provided over 2.5 years for:
● ‘Tactical genetic control of rats’ ($2.25m): a multi-agency project coordinated by the Genomics Aotearoa collaborative research platform, investigating whether recent overseas advances in producing mice of only one sex can be adapted for new potential approaches for rat eradication.
● ‘Can we turn stoat breeding off?’ ($200k): co-funding a Royal Society Te Apārangi Marsden project at Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, exploring the stoat genome to understand their breeding genetics, and whether mechanisms identified could be used for control.
● ‘Sterilization of pests for conservation’ ($325k): co-funding an MBIE Smart Ideas project at the University of Otago, developing a new oral bait application for the permanent sterilization of mammalian pests, for non-toxin population control with no impact on native species.
● ‘Predator monitoring using eDNA’ ($200k): co-funding an MBIE Smart Ideas project at the University of Otago, testing and developing the detection of mammalian pest DNA in water as a new cost-effective, efficient, sensitive, and reliable approach for surveying their populations.
● ‘Detecting the last predator’ ($1.2m): co-funding a Science for Technological Innovation National Science Challenge project, developing a dynamic, learning network of mobile rechargeable robotic and sensor modules to detect ‘the last predator’ in forest environments.
● ‘Embedded R&D’ ($2.5m): carried out by Zero Invasive Predators to integrate the cutting edge tools that are becoming available now, such as thermal cameras with onboard A.I. ‘image recognition’ and ‘swarm satellite’ communications, to scale eradication up to 40,000 hectares.
These six projects are supporting new skilled employment including Vision Mātauranga fellowships and enabling multiple agencies to engage in breakthrough science research for PF2050.
They join nine existing investments under the 2020-2024 Predator Free 2050 Limited Research Strategy, covering capability development, predator behaviour, carbon accounting, and possum gene-editing.
“The portfolio of research needed to make the science breakthroughs essential for Predator Free 2050 success a reality is really starting to build,” Prof Tompkins said.
PF2050 Ltd will continue to update the public with the results of the projects as they progress.
More information on the new projects is detailed below, while the full portfolio can be viewed at https://pf2050.co.nz/towards-breakthrough-science/.
Project details
Funding Source: Jobs for Nature
University of Otago on behalf of Genomics Aotearoa of Dunedin – Tactical genetic control of rats
A multi-agency team co-ordinated by Genomics Aotearoa is exploring the rapidly advancing science of genetic-based control for developing crucial new rat suppression technology. This is a crucial collaboration, given New Zealand’s current approaches are insufficient to achieve PF2050 rat eradication targets.
The planned research is based on recent breakthroughs in developing rodents that produce only one sex in their offspring. It will build on the first ship rat genome already sequenced by New Zealand researchers with support from the first Predator Free 2050 Ltd Research Strategy (2017-20) https://www.genomics-aotearoa.org.nz/news/first-full-genome-rattus-rattus.
Science for Technological Innovation National Science Challenge (SfTI) – Detecting the last predator
Zero Invasive Predators – Embedded R&D
With co-funding help from PF2050 Ltd, Zero Invasive Predators (ZIP) has spent the last couple of years trialling a modified approach to using aerial 1080 to eliminate predators from large mainland sites. Building off its success in the Perth River valley, where possums and stoats have been eliminated (and a pocket of rats continue to be targeted), ZIP is seeking to demonstrate a second successful predator elimination operation in the neighbouring Butler-Whataroa valley. This research trials the modified approach of dual aerial 1080 operations – giving the predators lots of opportunity to find non-toxic bait to learn it is safe to eat, so that the orange- and then cinnamon-flavoured toxic bait is readily consumed. A network of traps connected by ‘LoRa’ and ‘swarm’ satellite communications, and A.I. cameras that can identify what they are looking at then detect any survivors (or invaders) to be targeted to complete the predator elimination and protect that predator-free site into the future.
