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Massive invasive rat now living on the canal.

13

Comments

  • #62
    Larbre34
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,109 ✭✭✭✭Larbre34


    DellyBelly wrote: »
    I live up that way and put out loads of rat poison. Hopefully it takes it and that will be the end of it

    It'll be the end of some poor person's dog. Catch yourself on.


  • #63
    The Enbalmer
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 937 ✭✭✭The Enbalmer


    I've just been out setting snares along the canal..baited with fruit.
    Apparently there's a bounty on each of these things so I'm hoping to catch a few.


  • #64
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 33,400 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    The Enbalmer wrote: »
    I've just been out setting snares along the canal..baited with fruit.
    Apparently there's a bounty on each of these things so I'm hoping to catch a few.


    See above. Who do you think is going to pay you a bounty?


  • #65
    DellyBelly
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,123 ✭✭✭DellyBelly


    Former Former wrote: »
    Tell me this is a pisstake. I don't want to live in a world where anyone is this stupid.

    Please.

    Well no it's not and I actually found 3 dead ones close to where I had some poison put out...so it is working


  • #66
    loyatemu
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 16,584 ✭✭✭✭loyatemu


    DellyBelly wrote: »
    Well no it's not and I actually found 3 dead ones close to where I had some poison put out...so it is working

    3 dead Coypu? Because that's what we're talking about here, not rats.

    Put your money where yer mouth is... Subscribe and Save Boards!

    https://subscriptions.boards.ie/



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  • #67
    no.8
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 932 ✭✭✭no.8


    DellyBelly wrote:
    I live up that way and put out loads of rat poison. Hopefully it takes it and that will be the end of it


    Why???????????????


  • #68
    freesia1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 72 ✭✭freesia1


    My husband walked that way today and three people had their phones out videoing two otters swimming and having fun. Hopefully it is a case of mistaken identity and there are no Coypu.;)


  • #69
    Birdie Num Num
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,253 ✭✭✭Birdie Num Num


    DellyBelly wrote: »
    Well no it's not and I actually found 3 dead ones close to where I had some poison put out...so it is working

    Could it also be the reason for the DellyBelly?


  • #70
    Former Former
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,728 ✭✭✭Former Former


    DellyBelly wrote: »
    Well no it's not and I actually found 3 dead ones close to where I had some poison put out...so it is working

    Maybe try some yourself, just to be sure.


  • #71
    Zaph
    Registered Users, Subscribers, Registered Users 2 Posts: 47,418 ✭✭✭✭Zaph


    Former Former wrote: »
    Maybe try some yourself, just to be sure.

    OK, enough of that thanks


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  • #72
    Polar101
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,197 ✭✭✭Polar101


    Okay, so no coypus to be sighted, but where/when can you spot an otter? Never seen one along the canal myself. Would love to see one.


  • #73
    The Enbalmer
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 937 ✭✭✭The Enbalmer


    Polar101 wrote:
    Okay, so no coypus to be sighted, but where/when can you spot an otter? Never seen one along the canal myself. Would love to see one.


    There's no otters and I'm pretty sure these yokes are actually mink not coypu. If they are mink they need to be eradicated


  • #74
    The Enbalmer
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 937 ✭✭✭The Enbalmer


    freesia1 wrote:
    My husband walked that way today and three people had their phones out videoing two otters swimming and having fun. Hopefully it is a case of mistaken identity and there are no Coypu.


    Otters are very shy and largely nocturnal..whatever these people were filming weren't otters


  • #75
    septictank
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 967 ✭✭✭septictank


    The Enbalmer wrote: »
    There's no otters and I'm pretty sure these yokes are actually mink not coypu. If they are mink they need to be eradicated

    It'd be easy enough to spot the difference, the Coypu have the big orange teeth and the Mink have buttons on the front.

    Claire Byrne will have the Coypu on the show tonight.


  • #76
    Arbie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 875 ✭✭✭Arbie


    I've seen a pair of otters swimming and playing in the Royal Canal during the day several times recently along by Ashtown/Rathborne/Royal Canal Park. They are definitely otters and not coypu or mink.


  • #77
    The Enbalmer
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 937 ✭✭✭The Enbalmer


    deezell wrote:
    If you can't find the sump plug, tip the mower first to drain the Petrol into a container, say an empty plastic quality street box or some such. Do this outdoors and carefully. Put this back in your petrol can. Now you can tip to empty the oil.

    Arbie wrote:
    I've seen a pair of otters swimming and playing in the Royal Canal during the day several times recently along by Ashtown/Rathborne/Royal Canal Park. They are definitely otters and not coypu or mink.


    If you saw them during the day in a populated area they most likely were not otters. Also,there's been so much work done along the canal banks recently there's no way otters would set up holts there.

    Otters and mink are very difficult to tell apart when they're swimming


  • #78
    PaddyBomb
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 954 ✭✭✭PaddyBomb


    These don't look like the coypu. Looks like otters or minks as someone suggested.



  • #79
    Birdie Num Num
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,253 ✭✭✭Birdie Num Num


    PaddyBomb wrote: »
    These don't look like the coypu. Looks like otters or minks as someone suggested.


    That looks like an otter to me. The white face suggests it's an otter.


  • #80
    The Enbalmer
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 937 ✭✭✭The Enbalmer


    Birdie Num Num wrote:
    That looks like an otter to me. The white face suggests it's an otter.


    Mink are white under the chin too


  • #81
    Birdie Num Num
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,253 ✭✭✭Birdie Num Num


    The Enbalmer wrote: »
    Mink are white under the chin too

    That's otter. Too big for mink and the shape of the head suggests otter.


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  • #82
    The Enbalmer
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 937 ✭✭✭The Enbalmer


    Birdie Num Num wrote:
    That's otter. Too big for mink and the shape of the head suggests otter.


    I've been fishing the canal for over 40 years and I've never seen or heard of otters in it.

    I dunno why they'd move there suddenly once the area becomes built up


  • #83
    Birdie Num Num
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,253 ✭✭✭Birdie Num Num


    The Enbalmer wrote: »
    I've been fishing the canal for over 40 years and I've never seen or heard of otters in it.

    I dunno why they'd move there suddenly once the area becomes built up

    Can't explain that one. I know there have been lots of sightings recently. Have heard numerous sources say they have seen them. All the times I have been on the canal banks I have never seen one. I have encountered a large turtle sunning itself but no otters, mink and no Coypu. Great that they are there (otters).

    Hope the fishing is going well. Haven't fished for years myself.


  • #84
    The Enbalmer
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 937 ✭✭✭The Enbalmer


    Birdie Num Num wrote:
    Hope the fishing is going well. Haven't fished for years myself.


    The canal has been poached heavily in recent decades but it's gradually making a comeback..Mink in the canal aren't good for fish stocks though.


  • #85
    Arbie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 875 ✭✭✭Arbie


    The Enbalmer wrote: »
    If you saw them during the day in a populated area they most likely were not otters. Also,there's been so much work done along the canal banks recently there's no way otters would set up holts there.

    Otters and mink are very difficult to tell apart when they're swimming

    I grew up beside a river full of mink and these guys are definitely otters. Much bigger and different faces. I was watching from the bank of the canal and one of them popped up right at the edge, less than 1 metre away, so I got a good look. You are right that otters are usually nocturnal, etc. but they can be seen in day and in relatively urban areas.


  • #86
    The Enbalmer
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 937 ✭✭✭The Enbalmer


    Arbie wrote:
    I grew up beside a river full of mink and these guys are definitely otters. Much bigger and different faces. I was watching from the bank of the canal and one of them popped up right at the edge, less than 1 metre away, so I got a good look. You are right that otters are usually nocturnal, etc. but they can be seen in day and in relatively urban areas.


    Wonder where they came from if they are otters. It's possible I guess that they've always lived there and are only being seen now the area is developing or they COULD have come from the nearby took a but I'm still sceptical.


  • #87
    daymobrew
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,765 ✭✭✭daymobrew


    I emailed Waterways Ireland last week to report a sighting at 12th Lock on 25 January at around 9am.
    I got a quick replay:
    Waterways Ireland wrote:
    Thanks for sending in that lovely photo ..of an Otter, at the 12th Lock. That is most certainly an otter – its activity is also indicative of otter activity.

    It's great to get in all these Otter reports and great to see the public are so interested in the canals nature and so vigilant

    The next reply was:
    Waterways Ireland wrote:
    Looks like the otter have moved closer to town around the Broombridge area - plenty of video evidence coming in this week of a pair or possibly even a family of them - early mornings when it's quiet before 8am dawn ish is often a good time to spot them.

    With respect to the coypu, on 22 March Waterways Ireland confirmed, on their Waterways Ireland Notifications Facebook page, that this was a false alarm.
    https://www.facebook.com/WINotifications/
    Waterways Ireland wrote:
    Earlier this week Waterways Ireland received notification of an unconfirmed report from the National Biodiversity Data Centre via National Parks and Wildlife Services of a Coypu on the Royal Canal. We are obliged to take this seriously, given the potential implications posed by a Coypu presence on Irish waterways. All evidence now leads us to believe that this was a case of mistaken identity and the report was likely that of native Otter, which are present on the Royal Canal.

    As there is a legal obligation to remove such invasive species from the wild, Waterways Ireland will continue to work closely with National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and the National Biodiversity Data Centre (NBDC). The public are encouraged to contact NBDC (www.biodiversityireland.ie) with any record of the invasive Coypu, preferably with a confirmation photo, if they happen to come across this species on any waterbody.


  • #88
    highdef
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,760 ✭✭✭highdef


    So they are otters, just as I expected.

    DellyBelly, how do you feel now that you most likely killed 3 native otters by way of poisoning them?


  • #89
    The Enbalmer
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 937 ✭✭✭The Enbalmer


    highdef wrote:
    DellyBelly, how do you feel now that you most likely killed 3 native otters by way of poisoning them?


    He can sell the pelts..no harm done.


  • #90
    highdef
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,760 ✭✭✭highdef


    The Enbalmer wrote: »
    He can sell the pelts..no harm done.

    Yes, but otters are protected under the Wildlife Act (1976) and Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000. You're not allowed to kill them. Dellybelly thinking that they were coypu, without first confirming it, is absolutely no excuse. I'm sure there are many people reading this thread who would feel like reporting him/her to the authorities for their selfish act.


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  • #91
    LorelaiG
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 700 ✭✭✭LorelaiG


    I doubt he's actually done that, more a keyboard warrior than anything else.


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