Bradifocoum. A common rat poison that Uncensored readers may recall has been widely used by NZ’s department Of Conservation alongside the more notorious 1080, is now proven to kill endangered native species through secondary poisoning.
Unfortunately,the evidence comes rather graphically in the form of the deaths of four Tuatara. Also known as Sphenodon, these critically rare reptiles are survivors of the age of the dinosaurs and only survive in the wild in small natural reserves. They are often referred to as a “living fossil”.
These particular animals were however, captive animals, as Stuff.co.nz reports:
Tuatara at a Nelson zoo are thought to have died by eating live insects, such as cockroaches, which had ingested rat poison.
Four tuatara in Natureland’s care have died – three in August 2017, March 2018, and April 2019. The fourth died in May this year after a burrow it had made collapsed. The tuatara was said to be well in the morning and died later that day.
Natureland’s acting director Grant Abel said its internal review into the reptiles’ deaths showed varying levels of the poison brodifacoum was found in three tuatara.
Samples from the first tuatara to die were not kept by Massey University and could not be re-tested for brodifacoum.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/113959278/natureland-tuatara-died-from-secondary-rat-poisoning
What the MSM news reports seem to carefully tip-toe around, however, is DOC’s use of Bradifocoum in the wild.
This first came to our attention, when Uncensored reproduced a report from TVNZ, claiming that residents were protesting the use of “1080” on Ratiku Island.
A knowledgeable reader quickly pulled up Uncensored the reports inaccuracy and kindly passed to this author a copy of the Bradifocoum FactSheet. We corrected the article subsequently, and the whole episode can be found at this link:
It must be pointed out that Natureland have,to their credit, discontinued the use of Bradifocoum at their premises. I’ve yet to hear DOC’s response to these findings. Will they too take pro-active measures?
One shudders to think how many other native and endangered species have suffered as a result of secondary poisoning from both bradifocoum and 1080.
Martin Harris 5/7/19
A few years back people in Thailand died as a result of eating deep fried locusts (which are considered a delicacy there). Aparently they were killed by the insecticides that the locusts had been exposed to.
Decades ago, chemicals like DDT had to be banned as they were decimating the natural predators, while the insects became resistant.
1080 is banned in most places, but here in NZ we continue to use it despite the obvious harm it does to the wildlife both native and introduced. One cannot halt the migration of species across continents, either by fences or by poisons. Nature finds a way.