The Star: March 02, 2023
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> Thursday <strong>March</strong> 2 2<strong>02</strong>3<br />
14<br />
NEWS<br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
From hospital nurse<br />
Karin Bos was a nurse at<br />
Christchurch Hospital for 20<br />
years. Now she cares for<br />
some of the most precious<br />
wildlife on Banks Peninsula.<br />
Heidi Slade reports<br />
KAITORETE IS one of the<br />
region’s hidden, natural gems.<br />
<strong>The</strong> 25km spit runs south-west<br />
from near Birdlings Flat along<br />
the southern edge of Te Waihora/<br />
Lake Ellesmere.<br />
Home to banded dotterel,<br />
ground-nesting birds such as<br />
oystercatchers and endangered<br />
native spiders like katipō, as<br />
well as skinks and two species<br />
of flightless moth, the area is<br />
also populated with pests such<br />
as hedgehogs, mustelids,<br />
possums and feral cats.<br />
Bos has been working for Pest<br />
Free Banks Peninsula for 20<br />
months on various projects. She<br />
is now based at Kaitorete as a<br />
dog handler for its conservation<br />
dog programme.<br />
‘‘I’m excited to be a part of such<br />
an enormous, amazing goal,’’<br />
said Bos who lives in Little River.<br />
Since December, she has<br />
worked with Mobab, a threeand-a-half-year-old<br />
border terrier<br />
trained to track hedgehogs.<br />
Recently the pair were<br />
joined by Terry, a 20-month-old<br />
welsh springer spaniel trained to<br />
track down feral cats. PFBP has<br />
PET-LOVER: Karin Bos with her two detection dogs Mabob<br />
(left) and Terry.<br />
been contributing to<br />
Predator Free New Zealand’s<br />
Pest Free 2050 initiative<br />
since 2<strong>02</strong>0, when<br />
Government funding was<br />
committed for five years.<br />
PFBP operations manager<br />
Tim Sjoberg said funding after<br />
2<strong>02</strong>5 will depend on whether ‘‘we<br />
PLAYTIME:<br />
Mabob<br />
looks out<br />
over the<br />
ocean from<br />
Kaitorete.<br />
Left – Terry<br />
gets to<br />
work in the<br />
bush.<br />
are valued by the community.”<br />
‘‘We are hoping that Pest Free<br />
2050 funding will continue to the<br />
next stage,’’ he said.<br />
Kaitorete is one of two areas<br />
PFBP works in, Bos says.<br />
In Kaitorete, it aims to ‘‘get rid<br />
of possums, cats, stoats, ferrets,<br />
weasels and hedgehogs.’’<br />
Fill out your<br />
census forms<br />
online or on<br />
paper.<br />
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you need?<br />
For help, census forms,<br />
or language support visit<br />
www.census.govt.nz<br />
or call 0800 CENSUS<br />
(0800 236 787).<br />
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