POPULATION BIOLOGY OF SMALL MAMMALS IN PUREORA FOREST PARK .1. CARNIVORES (MUSTELA-ERMINEA, M-FURO, M-NIVALIS, AND FELIS-CATUS)

Populations of four species of carnivores were sampled over the five y ears 1983-87 at Pureora Forest Park, by regular three-monthly Fenn tra p index lines supplemented with occasional control campaigns by shooti ng and additional traps. Stoats were the most frequently collected (63 captures), followed by weasels (18), cats (15) and ferrets (13). Stoa ts ranged throughout the mosaic of forest types but especially the old er exotic blocks, hunting rabbits, rats, possums and birds. The mean a ge of 55 stoats trapped was 15 months, and their maximum life span abo ut 5 years. The age-specific mortality rate of first year stoats was a bout 0.76, and the proportion of older stoats (>1 year) declined from 52% of 21 killed in summer/autumn of 1983 to 27% of 22 killed in the s ame seasons of 1984-87. Weasels were collected mainly from habitats fa vouring mice, such as a young plantation and the road verges, and 40% of 15 non-empty weasel guts contained mice. Cats and ferrets hunted th e native forest blocks where their main prey, rats and possums, were a bundant. The body sizes and reproductive patterns of mustelids at Pure ora were similar to those recorded in podocarp-broadleaf forests elsew here in New Zealand.