CatMap has had a busy year with 60 cats tracked

CatMap has had a busy year with 60 cats tracked. See the Curious Minds Story here

Some pets put up with wearing a tracker 3 times as owners experimented with cat wearing bells and glow-collar.

Our results show that the 'beat' the cats followed was not affected by the glow-collar or bell, but that there did seem to be fewer birds caught.

We would like more owners to pop a glow collar on their pet - and record how many mice and rats are caught. We do hope that the cats catch fewer birds but keep the rodents down. But we need data going into iNaturalist! All records are welcome here

We have put our resources online, and you can learn about GPS tracking, satellites and even how to make a Glow Collar here.

See the video about CatMap and Tabby on "Fanimals, My Big Backyard"

CatMap looks at what our pets have been up to .. Angel is a busy girl.

The cats have had a busy six months. Some are very adventurous... and may need some Health and Safety advice!

• Don't cross roads !!
• Stay home by a nice bowl of bikkies
• Keep close to cuddles

Angel is a home-girl by day, but visits many neighbours at night. What is she doing crossing the main road? See her wonderful video here.  Angel July 2018  
Has Angel changed her pattern of walks during winter and summer? 

• 2017 November, daytime (spring), Angel is walking far and wide.

• 2017 November night time (spring)

 

•   2018 June - winter day time. A bit chilly?

• 2018 June - winter night time, just traveling around the edges of the paddock

• 2018 July - later winter day time, focus on some interesting places along the road. A few favourite spots are beginning to be seen. Angel has a bell on her collar. 

•  2018 July - later winter night time, a bell on Angel, but a visiting dog may be worrying her at home.

 

• All day time places combined. Does Angel have a favourite place?
  
  

• All night-time time places combined. Home seems best, but you can see other interesting places to visit. And she crosses the main road several times in the dark.

• A glow-collar experiment. Did Angel behave differently? Day time
• 

•  Night time ... Angel seems to go further in warmer weather - even with a glow collar. And she is crossing the main road at night

•  Angel's tracks show her favourite places. What are they?

CatMap

 

CatMap is a "Curious Minds" project where schools and community participants question how domestic cats are interacting with sensitive natural areas and investigate ways of altering cat behaviour to allow positive outcomes for pet cat welfare and endangered species conservation.

Welbourn School children offer suggestions for the research project

How to keep our cats and wildlife safe - new words and clever ideas

How many satellites are tracking the cats?

Maps of Welbourn showing how satellite imagery can show more than an aerial photo

Maps of Pukekura Park

The Curious Minds project "Pukekura Park - Living Science' has been completed. 

We have produced some wonderful resources with the help of two teachers on a RSNZ 'Science Teachers Leadership' placement with MAIN Trust. See the booklets and the maps - and find out where you are in the Park on your mobile phone.

These resources include NZ Curriculum links and suggestions to incorporate material into class sessions.  

To plan your class trip to Pukekura Park, download the 'Pukekura Park Living Science' guide.  


The Friends of Pukekura Park and MAIN Trust have produced maps of the Significant Plants in Pukekura Park. David Medway's book can be read online here.



 
 

  Around the Lakes booklet and interactive map
 











 Maranui walk - an educational trip into native bush and history


 








Brooklands NatureWalk - taking you through deep bush and a guide to plants you may find along the walk.














Mobile phone map to show where you are in the Park 

A map of the Pukekura Park with over 2,000 plants, historic information, and photo gallery of views and features.

PestMapper - see the results of your trapping efforts

PestMapper is the online data entry and analysis platform developed by MAIN Trust NZ. 

Once you have collected data then you can use it to see how effective the pest-control project actually is. For example, a 'heatmap' animation of the data collected.

Once your data is in, it just takes a couple of clicks to see how the pest-trap operation is progressing.
Here we see the total pest tally for each year.

The different species caught can be seen below - lots of rats - the purple bar! Stoats are the grey bar.
Catch in 2010 - 2014
 

Catch in  2014 - 2017

 

Statistics:

Make comparisons over years, with attention to the statistics for measuring total trap nights, adjusted nights, per 100 trap nights, and effort (checks):

 How much effort in checking the traps has been put in to catching the pests?


What is the most effective bait to catch the pests?



















Contact MAIN Trust, click here to open a form. 

 Thanks to the TSB Community Trust for making the development of PestMapper possible.