Chinchilla imports worry pest board

Press, 23 August 1984, Page 14

Chinchilla imports worry pest board

PA Blenheim Imports of the South American rodent, chinchilla, into New Zealand without an investigation of their potential as pests pointed to serious flaws in import regulations, the chairman of the South Island Pest Destruction Boards’ Association, Mr Laurie Moore, has said. Although there were now more than 50 of the small rodents, valued for their soft, grey pelts, in New Zealand, interested groups had not been informed or consulted, he said. Mr Moore is worried that the rabbit-like burrowing rodent, a native of the Chilean Andes, could become yet another high-country pest. “The Wildlife Division should have learnt from the East. Possums, hares, rabits, and rooks brought into New Zealand are now the responsibility of pest destruction boards,” he said. The assistant director of the Animal Health Division of the Ministery of Agriculture and Fisheries, Mr Michael Davidson, said 24 chinchilla entered New Zea-

land in April, and a further 30 in July. The responsibility of the division was not deciding whether imported animals were potential pests but keeping diseased animals out of the country, he said. “We have had applications for bison, llama, water buffalo, and all sorts of animals. If people think they can farm an animal, we are not concerned with stopping them.” However the Wildlife Service of the Department of Internal Affairs was always consulted on the animal’s potential biological impact, Mr Davidson said. The service had advised the division that chinchilla did have the potential to spread, especially in the South Island, the service’s

assistant director, Mr Brian Bell, said. Wild cats made their chances of survival outside captivity “pretty low,” however. The service had recommended that they be confined to the North Island. “But although I have not seen the conditions on the import licence, as far as I know there, is nothing stopping them going south,” Mr Bell said. The whole question of animal imports needed revamping, with public notification perhaps being a requirement, Mr Bell said. Mr Moore was quite justified in his opinion that the Agricultural Pests Destruction Council should have been consulted on the chinchilla import, Mr Bell said.