Call for action to protect owls from rat poisons

At a recent community presentation in Margaret River Nature Conservation called on the community of the south west to be mindful of the type of rat poisons they use in order to prevent severe impacts on the owl populations of the region and potentially other native fauna.

The presentation began with Nature Conservation Board Members Dr Boyd Wykes and Steve Castan giving an informative and entertaining presentation on their night time escapades searching for the little known SW Masked Owl.

Edith Cowan University PhD Researcher, Mike Lohr then presented his findings from his recent research into the impacts of rat poisons on Boobook Owls. Mike’s research included testing dead Boobooks for eight rodenticides across a variety of habitat types and locations in WA, including many from the Margaret River region.

Alarmingly Mike’s results indicate that a new generation of rat poisons has the potential to create ‘a silent night’ through secondary poisoning of our well known Boobook owl, our newly discovered Masked Owls and potentially other native marsupial predators.

Nature Conservation is keen to raise awareness of this potentiality serious danger to our local wildlife and calls on the community to be mindful of the rat poisons they are using.

Nature Conservation will be working will retail outlets across the region to try and increase the awareness of the impact of rodenticides and encourage the sale of products that will have the least impact on our local wildlife. This work will take some time so in the mean time we urge you as the purchaser to make a wise decision. Click below for more information on the best options for wildlife friendly rat control.

Read about how you can control rats without poisoning wildlife?