How many stoats and weasels were imported to New Zealand from England between 1883 – 1892?

7838 stoats and weasels were imported to New Zealand from England.

In March 1887 the government lost 32,803 pounds of revenue from 1.3 million acres of Otago sheep country which had become infested with rabbits - the farmers needed a solution! Weasels and stoats imported from England were that solution – they were released into rabbit-infested areas. However, these are animals that naturally have large home rages and they did not stay put and spread into native forests and began to kill more native species than rabbits, because native birds and insects required less effort to catch and kill.

Chief Inspector Benjamin Bayly thought that the risk to native birds was a price worth paying for saving the wool industry in New Zealand! However there were others that were against introducing stoats and weasels, particularly Richard Henry, one of New Zealand’s first conservation champions.