Stoats
Of all the furry things we decided to bring onto our shores – stoats were probably our biggest mistake.
Baby-making machines
Rabbits are good at making babies, but the stoat is even better.
They can carry up to 12 babies at a time and the females are always pregnant.
This is very scary for the Department of Conservation. It means if a female stoat gets to one of our pest-free islands, it is likely to be carrying babies. They will mate with each other and have more babies within a few months and could soon destroy the precious wildlife on the island.
In the 1800s, they were brought here to control rabbits and hares, but it’s not just rabbits that ate - they found birds were easy to catch and they loved eating our kiwi, our kokako and our kea.
Only five out of every 100 kiwi chicks live to be adults. Most of the rest are killed by stoats.
Stoats can live anywhere – forests, tussockland, farm pasture and even on dunes and riverbeds so they prey not just on forest birds, but also on sea and river dwelling birds like our critically endangered fairy tern. (It's down to just 40 individuals).
Stoats can be caught with specially designed traps or killed with poisoned bait. If you want to see if there are stoats in your garden click here.
Facts, facts, facts
- The Maori name for the stoat is Toriura.
- Males are up to 40cm long and weigh 350g. Females are up to 33cm long and weigh 240g.
- Stoats are mostly dark brown in colour brown with creamy white underparts and a bushy black tipped tail.
- Stoats are strong swimmers. Islands within 1.5km of the mainland are probably vulnerable to stoat invasion. A male stoat once swam from the beach at Mount Maunganui through the waves to the offshore island of Motuotau or Rabbit Island where it killed around 100 nesting seabirds in one week. Fortunately it was caught and killed.
- Stoats roam far and wide to find food, and their home range – the area in which they roam – can be up to 100 hectares.
| Stoats | Weasels | Ferret |
|---|---|---|
| Larger tail | Shorter tail | Larger tail |
| Pale belly - with a distinctive line between the white and brown | No distinctive colour on the belly | Dark-coloured stomach |
| Black tip on its tail | Short tail with no black tip | Black tip on its tail |
| No black face mask | No black face mask | Black face mask |
| 30-40 cm long | 20 – 25 cm long | 48 – 56 cm |
