A dead weasel was found inside the Zealandia Wildlife Sanctuary earlier this month — sparking questions on how the pest made it through 9km of predator-proof fencing.
It is the fourth weasel to be found inside the Wellington sanctuary in the past six years.
Chief executive Danielle Shanahan said a weasel was found in a trap on August 1.
“Weasels are incredible predators and are known killers of native wildlife. We take these sorts of incursions very seriously as a result.”
She said figuring out how it got in is an “incredibly challenging” task.
“These mammals can get through a hole just a little bigger than your thumb and could even have possibly been dropped in by a native bird of prey, like a kārearea/NZ falcon.
“Fortunately, introduced predators infiltrating the Zealandia fence isn’t a common occurrence, but when we do find something like this we act quickly to make sure that no more remain.”
Rangers have checked the fence and were currently setting more traps and putting out trail cameras to figure out whether there were any other intruders, she said.
“In this instance, the weasel was found dead, and we have no evidence of other weasels remaining in the sanctuary.”
