Ruud Kleinpaste: How to catch predators

Warning: Article includes images of animals caught in predator traps.  Not terribly long ago, Selena Gomez had a go at marketing a chocolate cookie that features cinnamon and all sorts of sweet stuff in the recipe.  It was an Oreo described as “Flavour-Forward”, and it was suggested people consume that wonderful stuff during things such as the Emmy Awards or the Oscars.  Sweetness and cinnamon are often used to attract possums to the lethal traps, used to make New Zealand Predator-Free…  And guess what!  A local Cantabrian biologist (Graham Hickling) had a go at trying out the Oreo to see if possums might be interested – and they were!  More than enough for me to have a go myself in the last few weeks, beginning with my Possum Trap. The Selena Gomez Oreo is dirt cheap – you don’t have to be Dutch to appreciate that…  With some apple, a couple of Oreos, and various other good possum attractants (self-raising flour and cinnamon), I started on night one, to see if any possum would be interested.  Problem is, I hadn’t heard a possum for the past five months, so my hope was not too high…  The following morning: bingo!  One hedgehog.  All the Oreos were gone, some apple was still around, and the hedgehog showed no signs of life at all.  I tried a second night with the same set-up:  Bingo! A second hedgehog.  The third night I had a go with a mouse trap or two. Two mice in one night, followed with a rat on the night thereafter.  May I recommend the Selena Gomez brilliantly cheap and useful, sweet lure to keep our Aotearoa in a much better state of predator-free?  Just saying!  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.