The death of a family of 3 kookaburras was recently reported by a Northern Beaches resident. Sadly, it appears the deaths were due to someone using poison to get rid of rats in their yard. One of the adults ate the poisoned rat and fed it to their chicks resulting in the slow, painful death of all.
Rat poison takes the form of an anti-coagulant which doesn’t kill the rodent immediately so birds like kookaburras and owls that hunt living prey are unaware that by eating the slow-dying rat they are subject to secondary poisoning by second generation anticoagulant rodenticides, or SGARS.
BirdLife Australia, which has been campaigning for years to get these killers out of the environment, states that “The most insidious problem with SGARs is that they don’t break down easily. Because SGARs break down slowly, poison builds up in animal tissue more easily, making sub-lethal effects worse or ultimately killing animals outright. SGARs also don’t break down quickly through an animal’s decomposition, so animals can remain poisonous for months or even years after they die.”
The safest way to get rid of rodents is to make your house and garden less rodent friendly.
- clean up garden waste, including fallen fruit, and keep your yard/shed tidy
- seal potential roof/wall cavity access points that rodents might be using
- ensure excess pet food isn’t accessible, and rodent-proof chook pens and aviaries
- limit access to compost heaps, by lining the base with suitable mesh and turning it over often
- consider non-poison pest control, like snap traps
- if you do choose to use poisons, learn which products to buy and avoid here
Support native predators:
- plant owl-friendly native plants and trees with a good canopy cover
- replace rat-friendly plants, like palms, with local endemics – ask your council for tips on what to plant
- install appropriately designed nest boxes for owls to breed in
(This article adapted from a Pittwater Online News article)