2021-07-20 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes (2)

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Kanalu- So that PVC pipe was a project long before I was here, and they use the diphacinone bait, that was fish flavored or fish smelling to kill mongoose. I mean for trapping our main target is cats. We do get mongoose as well. But we feel cats are the biggest treat to game birds and the trapping is also for the Palila protection as for other native bird protection. Our main target are cats. Also, it’s good to get rid of mongoose as well. That diphacinone would not be something that would target cats at all. That was a project… And that bait doesn’t exist anymore. They don’t make that fish flavor, smelling scented diphacinone bait any more. It’s not really an option. Stanley – So what is attracting the game bird to the traps? Kanalu- We use a couple different type of baits. The main one that Maunakea Forestry Division uses is cat food mixed up with some type of oil or fish oil or something like that. Just dry cat food mixes up with that and we use also canned sardines. Stanley – You guys know what traps the Erckels go in? Kanalu – It’s pretty random and we have already 700 traps in the mountain now. The time I presented we had two months ago, with 600 traps. 600 traps in the mountain and 11 Erckles. It was pretty random where the Erckles were being trapped. Stanley – It isn’t one bait or another just the luck of the draw. Kanalu – 600 traps, 11 Erckles yeah, just luck of the draw like you said. Stanley – Thank you. Brian – Is there any special trapping season? I know you guys are supposed to dismantle the traps between September and bird season, but the rest of the season you guys run that? Kanalu – We pretty much start putting out the trap after the bird season in February. And we take them down pretty much in August. To get ready they run dogs. They do their run dog permit, pretty much from February to August. We do some live trapping and continue trapping inside the water units as we have time to check and close. And, mostly we close them between September through the end of January. 10