The Stoat Killers of Orkney

 

This is their one of their many vans, three of which were parked at Happy Valley when we went there for a walk on Tuesday.

You can't see what it says on the side but obviously they don't brand their vans as being Orkney Stoat Killers. They call themselves the Orkney Native Wildlife Project. This obviously sounds much nicer. but they are basically stoat killers. They were set up solely  to exterminate stoats on Orkney, a non native species that first appeared on Orkney in 2010. The 2010 is according to them. I don't think there is any independent verification of that. To this end they have been given humungous amounts of money from  amongst others, the local council and the RSPB. 

They say stoats are a danger to the many ground nesting birds we have in Orkney - which may well be so, but if that is the case you would think that they would produce some statistics to prove it. Of course, it would be a bit tricky because bird populations in Orkney of all types have been falling since before 2010; when we moved here in 2005 there weren't the numbers of birds there had been when we first holidayed here. So producing stats that adjusted  for the general decline in all species, perhaps with some evidence about why that was happening and showing that ground nesting birds had been more affected since 2010 due presumably tot he stoats, assuming that is when they first arrived, would back up their agenda and go some way to justifying their funding. Such stats may have been produced ( although I doubt it) but if they do, they haven't been made publicly available. 

For their 'work' they use poisoned traps, tunnel like things with bait at one end and a small entrance at the other, which are too narrow to turn around in. Guess what? It's not only stoats that get trapped in them. Small rabbits, voles, feral kittens have all been reported as turning up in stoat traps. Are there any statistics produced about how many other species as opposed to stoats are caught in these traps. Are there chuff. 

When the project was first set up the justification for exterminating stoats was simply that they were a non-native species. When various people pointed out that so was the hare but nobody seemed to be bothered about eradicating that, then the story about the ground nesting birds emerged and was given prominence. 

The large group of ONWP people at Happy Valley the other day seemed to be training dogs to catch stoats, laughing and joking as they tried to get the dog to catch a ( toy? stuffed? ) stoat on a stick that they waved around.  Ha ha. 

I'm not saying that stoats aren't a danger to ground nesting birds. I don't know - because no-one has made an effort to prove it. I'm not saying that the traps aren't the best or the only way to do it, although I sincerely doubt it. I do know they are trapping things other than their target stoats and I think they should come out and admit that. And produce some numbers - although to be honest  I wouldn't trust any figure that came out of their office because they have an agenda and they won't be shaken from it.  But these people are getting large sums of public money and they should be held accountable. I think they should also admit that, given their own comments about the fertility rates of stoats, they are on a hiding to nothing. They will not be able to eradicate stoats because I reckon the task is well nigh impossible, but while they continue to maintain that it is and that they are working hard to achieve it they have very secure jobs. 

I took some lovely pictures in Happy Valley although the trip was overshadowed somewhat by seeing the Stoat Killers and I'll post some of them another day.