Manris.— Against Introduction of Beasts of Prey. 179 
Arr. XVIII.—Objections to the Introduction of Beasts of Prey to destroy the 
Rabbit. By H. B. Martm. 
(Read before the Nelson Philosophical So-iety, 2nd June, 1884.) 
Tins paper deals specially with the weasel (Mustelide) and ichneumon 
(Viverrida) families; but much that can be said against them will apply to 
any other beast of prey. I use the names of ichneumon and weasel to 
denote respectively the Indian ichneumon (mungoos) and the weasel, with 
all allied beasts of similar habits. 
1. The introduction of these beasts of prey to destroy the rabbit is 
unnecessary; for poisoning with phosphorized corn succeeds well, even 
in spring and summer, when there is abundance of feed, while tuber- 
eulosis (which has recently broken out among the rabbits in Otago) will 
probably destroy them more thoroughly than any other means would. In 
various parts of the Auckland district the rabbits have become almost or 
quite extinct from natural causes ; * tuberculosis was also believed to be 
present in the Wairau Valley, where the rabbits were beginning to decrease 
before the present Act was in force. 
2. Having no natural enemies here, and their furs being of very inferior 
quality in this climate, there would be no adequate check upon them, and 
they would therefore increase and spread as the rabbit has done. In 
Canada and other northern regions the weasels are killed in great numbers 
for their furs, and are also preyed on by larger beasts of prey, while in more 
settled districts their ravages among game and poultry cause them very 
generally to be destroyed, yet with all this they are in no danger of extine- 
tion, even where most persecuted, the intermission caused by changes of 
fashion sufficing in two or three years to restore them to their former 
numbers; and in England the stoat and weasel are so common, though 
freely destroyed, that it would seem impossible to exterminate them. The 
beasts of prey that have been, or are being introduced are the stoat, weasel, 
ferret, and Indian mungoos, all very prolific, as the following facts will 
show. The weasel has at least 2, perhaps 8, litters annually of 4 or 5 each, 
the stoat has 5 at a birth, and the polecat also 4 or 5; while the ferret 
(at home) has 2 litters in a year of 6 to 9 each. Iam not able to give the 
rate of increase of the mungoos, but in Jamaica, where it was introduced to 
destroy the sugar rats, it has apparently increased much faster than in 
India, having in ten years completely overrun that island, even to the tops 
of the highest mountains (7,000 feet), and though it has certainly reduced 
the rats, it kills all other animals it can (as the weasel and stoat do also), 
so that all species of ground birds, fresh water and sea fowl, are rapidly 
*Hansard No. 7, pp. 342-3, 1883. 
