Martin.— Against Introduction of Beasts of Prey, 179 



Aet. XVIII. — Objections to the Introduction of Beasts of Prey to destroy the 

 Rabbit. By H. B. Mabtin. 

 (Bead be/ore the Nelson Philosophical So-iety, 2nd June, 1884.) 

 This paper deals specially with the weasel {Mustelidm) and ichneumon 

 {Viverridce) 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- 

 culosis (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 extinc- 

 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 3, 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. I am 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. 



