The Press. 6 June 2025
Akaroa township has been declared free of possums. No possum had been detected in the township since December 27, except for two sightings on May 24. Pest Free Banks Peninsula believed it was the same individual captured twice on a trail camera.
“Saying there are no possums in town is a very bold statement to make,” said wildside operations co-ordinator Ollie Rutland-Sims.
That is because the place is likely to be reinvaded by possums from elsewhere on the peninsula – as indeed probably happened in late May.
“Possums don’t respect boundaries and they are more than capable of travelling significant distances seeking food, shelter and mates,” said Rutland-Sims.
Pest Free BP has a plan for when reinvasion occurs. There is a “call to arms” and traps and cameras are taken to the area.
The organisation started intensive trapping operations – known as the “knock down” phase – in August across the 200ha that make up the township.
Over three months, a “tight-knit network” of toxin bait stations and traps was deployed across more than 130 properties in an attempt to remove 95% of the possums.
That was followed by “mop-up” trapping and then a “surveillance” phase that deployed infra-red trail cameras, possum dogs and community observations to root out “elusive stragglers”, Rutland-Sims said.
The township is now in “defence” phase, where a layer of monitoring gear is left in place and residents and visitors are relied upon to report possum activity.
The group has a Report a Pest page on its website where possums (and goats and feral pigs) can be recorded.
The Pest Free BP data is backed up by thermal cameras installed by Cacophony Project founder Grant Ryan on his Akaroa property in 2019.
Whereas his technology, including artificial intelligence, was recording almost five possum activities a day in 2021, the number fell to under one in 2023 and none in 2024 and so far in 2025.
Pest Free BP is concentrating its possum operations in the southeast wedge of the Peninsula, which it calls the “extended wildside”.
Everything south of a boundary line between Duvauchelle to Okains Bay is covered. Of those rough 23,000ha, 1387ha are in the knock down phase – the high-kill mode.
About 6800ha are in the mop-up phase, 1800ha in the surveillance phase and 950ha are considered free of possums. These include Akaroa township and two blocks near the harbour mouth.
Possums were successfully introduced into New Zealand in 1858 in Southland for their fur.
A graphic of possum spread created by Landcare Research shows possum presence on Banks Peninsula in the 1870s. By 1950, the peninsula was inundated.
The extended wildside covers almost 11,000ha, about 10% of the peninsula’s 100,000ha.