Tristan da Cunha Ratting Day News

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Ratting Day 2010 The traditional "Ratting Day" was held on Friday 21st May. The day was announced by the ringing of the gong, early in the morning, by Neil Swain, Head of Agriculture.
Most Tails 1st Prize - Bills Hill 2nd Prize - Second Watron 3rd Prize - Red Body Hill	Results The Booby Prize went to "Old Pieces"	Longest Tail 1st Prize - Bills Hill 2nd Prize - Twitty Patch
	Apprentice Hunters Dawn Repetto has sent these wonderful pictures showing three little Rat Hunters Jamie Glass, Ryan Swain and Calvin Green learning how to dig under a stone to disturb nesting rodents



Ratting Trends David Morley reports that a downward trend in rats caught on Ratting Day correlates well with the systematic poison bait stations on the Settlement Plain. Tails caught on recent ratting days : 2006 - 1105; 2007 - 652; 2008 - 900 +; 2009 - 518; 2010 - 426 David hasn't seen a rat or mouse in the Settlement for a long time, chickens and ducks are raising large broods of chicks with no fear of them being eaten by rats, and vegetables ( especially potatoes) are being left unchewed. Even Kingbirds, who normally seek rodent-proof nests on Tristan's sea-stacks or hardies, are nesting in the Patches (see Terns Page). All in all, good news for everybody except frustrated hunters perhaps?

2009 Ratting Day Report from Chief Islander Conrad Glass
Ratting Day was held on Wednesday 3rd June 2009, with Conrad ringing the dong to declare the start of hunting at 7am after much deliberation about the weather. The decision proved wise, as after two early showers in the first half hour, the remainder of the day was nice and sunny.

Images of Ratting Day 2009

Left : Brad Robson's shot of a ratting
gang hot on the scent of a rodent nest
under a Patches Plain stone hill.

Right: Anja Rosler's shot of the rat tail count with Dr Carel Van der Merwe resplendent in a top hat, with Dereck Rogers casting his expert eye on proceedings and Carel's wife Ingrid

Rats caught by each gang :

Below the Hill - 202 - 1st Prize; Daily's Hill - 124 - 2nd Prize; Second Watron - 103 3rd Prize
The Coolers - 78; The Farm - 49; Twitty Patch - 48; Bill's Hill - 17
Old Pieces - Nil - Booby Prize =; Red Body Hill - Nil - Booby Prize =

Longest Tails :
274mm ~ caught by Below the Hill Gang - 1st Prize; 2nd Longest Tail ~ 266 mm caught by Daily's Hill - 2nd Prize

2008 Ratting Day Report and Photos from David Morley

All aboard for Ratting Day - Friday 6th June 2008

Friday 6th June saw this year's Ratting Day. For various reasons it has been impossible to hold it sooner, which meant that although dry and calm, the weather was a bit cooler than we would have liked. And by this time of year the rats have burrowed deeper, requiring more work to dig them out.

The gangs sent out at first light. There were 8 teams - Below The Hill, Coolers, Daily's Hill, Bill's Hill, Farm, Second Watron, Red Body Hill and Twitty Patch.
The Administrator and the MO, among others, provided transport for the families out to the Patches later during the morning and back in time for the judging at 1800.

Left : Preparing the feast - A Land Rover laden with supplies arrives at The Patches to keep hungry hunters going for a day's hunting.

Judge Dereck Rogers was ready and waiting at his vet's surgery at 1800 sharp, with Chief Islander Conrad Glass invigilating and the Admin and the MO observing as referees.

Left Dereck checking tails & David measuring.

Right : Conrad scrutinising results.

Left : Eureka - the longest tail for 2008 at 250mm - all part of a day's work for the Tristan da Cunha Administrator!

Right : More deliberations

The two categories were largest number of tails, and longest tail. The first category takes into account the gang numbers, so the biggest total doesn't necessarily win the prize. Over 900 rats bit the dust on the day.

Results were:

Most Tails	Longest Tail
1st prize - Second Watron (223 tails) 2nd prize - Red Body Hill (147 tails) 3rd prize - Twitty Patch (100 tails)	Red Body Hill (250mm) Twitty Patch (245mm)

Left : Jack Green receives the first prize from Dereck Rogers on behalf of the Second Watron Ratting team who win the team competition for the second year running.

Ratting Day - Monday 18th June 2007

The annual Ratting Day was announced by Agriculture Officer Dereck Rogers, ringing the fishing gong at 06.30hrs. It was a nice day with the wind from the NW making it calm at the Potato Patches. The police and administrator's land rovers were used to transport the ladies and pensioners from the village to the Patches.

There was rather a carnival atmosphere, as the men set out to hunt the rats. The dogs were very excited, knowing they would be hunting rats. Soon there was barking of dogs, and the shouting of 'catch him, catch him', as the nests of rats were dug out. They rush for cover with men and dogs chasing them, sometimes being hard to distinguish who was chasing who, as the rats rushed back towards the men, who got smartly out of their way, not to get a rodent shinning up a trousers leg!

About midday the gangs of men retired to the camping huts for a scrumptious lunch which the ladies had cooked. Then it was back to hunting more rats and mice. By 18.00hrs all the gangs had handed their batch of rats tails, to be counted. By cutting off the tail of the rats and mice there is a record of the amount of which each gang kills.

The name of each team is named after an area of the patches, they are:

The Farm, Red Body Hill, Old Pieces, Second Watron, Daily's Hill , Twiddy Patch, Below the Hill, The Coolest, Johnny's Patch

Dr Carel Van der Merwe, Derek Rogers, and myself counted the tails in the veterinary clinic, We also measured the longest rat tail from each team. There was a lot of banter between rival teams as the tails were counted.

There was a dance to celebrate ratting day later that evening, when the prizes were given out by myself and Dereck.

If Ratting day was held in early May I think we would have killed more mice because the weather was warmer.

Thanks to all who took part and to Dereck for organising events.

Photo taken by Andries de Vries of
Left - Agriculture Officer Dereck Rogers who organised Ratting Day (with his hands full of rat's tails) and
Right - Chief Islander Conrad Glass who wrote this Ratting Day Report

The winning teams were :

Most Tails:

1st Prize Second Watron 22.6 tails per man

2nd prize Below the Hill 18.3 tails per man

3rd Prize Daily's hill 16.9 tails per man

Longest Tail:

1st Prize Twitty Patch 27.5 cm

2ns Prize Daily's hill 27.2 cm

Booby Prize Old Pieces

Total number of rats killed 652.

Ratting Day
Friday 12th May 2006

12th May 2006 was a lovely sunny day and saw the annual Tristan da Cunha Ratting Day. This traditional Public Holiday, held during the May, sees almost the entire community out hunting with dogs in gangs, with groups meeting in Potato Patches Camping huts for lunch and a celebratory dance in the evening.

There are ambitious plans
to eradicate rats and mice
on Tristan and mice on Gough Island
as they threaten nesting birds,
and their eggs -
see Conservation News Page

Photographs show dogs sniffing out rat nests, men digging out the rodents and the dead rats awaiting tail removal ready for the all-important count and measurement.

The Official Count

Agriculture Officer Neil Swain and Dr Joerg Jaschinski counting and measure the rat tails with Fr Don Wittich in the background acting as adjudicator.

A grand total of 1165 rats & mice were caught

Prizes for most tails went to the following traditional Ratting Gangs :

1st Prize - Twitty Patch
2nd Prize - Below-the-Hill
3rd Prize - Bill's Hill

Longest Tail Prizes :

1st 257mm - Bills Hill.
2nd 246mm - Twitty Patch

Ratting Day Prize Giving
in the Prince Philip Hall
by Chief Islander Anne Green

Left : Adrian Swain receives the coveted Ratting Trophy on behalf of the Twitty Patch Team

Right : Dawn Repetto receives the 2nd prize on behalf of the Below-the-Hill. It is interesting to see women are joining gangs that were formerly a male preserve!

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