In one New Zealand school, students are getting in on the task of rodent management.
Students at a small, semi-rural school near Wellington have been tasked with trapping rats at school – a project the children are keen to get involved with.
As part of the Capital Kiwi Project, 200 native kiwi birds are now living in Wellington’s eastern hills and Mākara Model School is helping protect them from rodents by setting and checking traps daily.
Students said they checked the traps each morning, which are baited with peanut butter and placed inside school buildings and around the school grounds. Disposal of the dead rodents is no problem – they get fed to the eels in the nearby stream.
One 12-year-old student said checking and resetting the traps was “pretty fun”, until there was a live rat to contend with. For any live rats that are found, the solution was to finish the job with a rock.
The school’s principle said students were learning about the circle of life, “acquiring skills they probably wouldn’t be learning at a school in the city.”
The school has been trapping rats for more than a decade, both to protect the area’s biodiversity and to keep rodents out of the classrooms. This kind of community effort is part of New Zealand’s bigger goal of becoming predator free by 2050.
Source: Mākara rat-catching drive keeps Wellington kiwis (and eels) alive by Kate Green. Radio New Zealand. May 6, 2025.
