Spotlight on Harry Cawood: Summer Scholarship

Each Summer VUW offers a number of summer scholarships.  Over the next few weeks I will highlight the work of some of the current scholarship holders.

Animal Health Board Summer Scholarship: Harry Cawood

Harry at the Botanic Gardens for the SSSI Young Professionals Christmas drinks

This year I received a summer scholarship from the Animal Health Board (AHB) looking at recent possum data.

Over the past couple of years, the AHB has run an operation called “Vector Net”. This operation aims to remove Tuberculosis (TB) in possums and other wildlife in eradications zones that cover 2.5 million hectares of New Zealand.

Studies show that once a possum population reaches a density of around 8 possums per hectare the chances of TB being sustained in a region drops.  If possums can be kept below these numbers then we may be able to eradicate TB from these regions.

Part of this operation has involved using handheld GPS units to record data from all traps, detection devices and poison stations in these areas.

By comparing the successful and unsuccessful traps in these regions I can examine what spatial factors are associated with possums, for example native bush, exotic forest and waterways.

By analysing this data, I hope to create a model that improves the identification of high risk factor areas that we can use to improve possum control areas.