Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference

Within New Zealand there have been more than 150 successful operations to eradicate exotic vertebrate pests from islands and many hundreds of operations to control exotic vertebrate pests on the mainland. This paper draws on this experience to discuss the justification and objectives for management of exotic vertebrate pests, selection of management methods and the measurement of success. The need to understand the biology of both the target species and potential non-target species is considered along with possible changes to inter-specific interactions following management of the target species. A variety of the tools that are available for management-from planning processes through traps to poisons and public consultation are discussed along with their impact on the environment, the target and non-target species. The need to measure, record and report results is emphasized.