a video of a kea using twigs to set off stoat traps in Fiordland National Park, apparently just for the satisfaction of hearing them go off. For background, stoats are an introduced pest in New Zealand, originally brought over from England in the late 1800s along with weasels and ferrets to try and combat the out-of-control rabbit populations (also introduced). The mustelids prefer native birds to eat because they are easier to catch, so the Department of Conservation (DoC) spend a lot of money trapping them using tunnel traps, long boxes with a break-back trap at the end. The box is to stop birds getting accidentally caught, and the traps are baited with eggs or freeze-dried rats. From the video it appears that the entrance to the tunnel is at the right of the frame, but the kea is inserting the twigs through a gap into the rear end of the tunnel (on the left) directly into the trap to set them off. Sticky beak is New Zealand's tooled-up kea | Stuff.co.nz
