Being relatively inexperienced at myna trapping, it took us a few weeks to gradually trick two of the feral birds into our locally built Fuller Street Dunecare trap. The mynas had been attracted to an active eastern rosella nesting box and were intent on taking it over from the resident rosella family.
As regular trappers will know, mynas are intelligent, cunning, and trap-shy, often outsmarting their human pursuers. But with the help of strategically placed and daily-tweaked Lucky-Dog morsels, we eventually coaxed them both into the trap.
Meanwhile, more mynas had been sighted near the adjacent Mullawarra Dunecare area. The two birds were transferred there to act as lures in another trap. What a surprise the next morning, to find the trap occupied by a carpet python … one with two bulges in its long belly!
The door was opened to let the snake out, but it decided it would rather stay in the trap for the day while it slept off its overnight meal. It didn’t vacate the trap till the following night.
The lesson: if you have mynas in a trap acting as lures, we recommend you block off the entrance holes overnight. It is not the mynas’ fault that they are a feral pest and, being captive, taking on a hungry python and having no way to escape is not a fair (or humane) contest!
Story and photos submitted by Greg Yeates and Roger Jennings, co-ordinators of Fuller Street Dunecare and Mullawarra Dunecare respectively.
