Stoat in the Dock: The Ecology and Management of Invasive Mustelids in New Zealand

As many Fellows are already aware, Springer Nature publishes a series entitled ‘Fascinating Life Sciences', describing intriguing research topics and challenges associated with the life sciences in international contexts. Each volume provides in-depth information, richly illustrated with photographs and chapter bibliographies.

Springer have chosen to publish my detailed analysis of the ecology and management of invasive mustelids in New Zealand. Its main title, Stoat in the Dock, is based on the metaphor of a hypothetical court case. Its brief is to examine all available evidence concerning to what extent mustelids (mainly stoats, and to a lesser extent, ferrets and weasels) still contribute to the ongoing loss of native biodiversity in New Zealand. The long processes required to understand the lives of predators, and the difficulties of managing them, are relevant not only to an international audience interested in the history and pitfalls of environmental management, but also to those working on the Predator-Free New Zealand 2050 programme today.

The necessary background information starts by summarising the catastrophic experiment in biological control that first brought mustelids to New Zealand during the 1880s. It then reviews some of what we have learned about stoat biology since 1950, and the massive and ongoing advances in field technology made since the 1990s. It is not about the practical aspects of removing mustelids, but about our progress in reducing the number of mustelids out there to be removed, at least locally. The final section, Judgement, assembles the evidence for and against mustelids compared with rats, and considers the arguments for and against the current Predator-Free 2050 campaign compared with fenced sanctuaries.

The literature on mustelids is vast and scattered, so searching for a particular topic is daunting. This book aims to help New Zealanders still working in the field, and to introduce that field to international readers, by providing an index to main subjects and sole or first authors. Many of those who have published on stoats over the last 75 years can find themselves or their team leaders listed there.

Like all technical reviews, this one was already out-of-date when first submitted. But its aim is only to summarise what we think we know now, at the end of the preliminary descriptive stages of mustelid research as at the time of writing. That aim will be met if it can continue to explain the long history of our experience in managing these beautiful but damaging and unwelcome animals.  Meanwhile, the critical knowledge we need to make future advances will depend on selective use of existing data to develop new programmes of comprehensive models and hypothesis testing.