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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Tess McClure in Auckland

The littlest rat catchers: New Zealand schoolchildren trap and kill 600 pests in 100 days

New Zealand
Children compete as part of rat catching competition on Rakiura/Stewart Island in New Zealand
Children compete as part of rat catching competition on Rakiura/Stewart Island in New Zealand Photograph: Halfmoon Bay School

In a tiny school on the southern-most tip of New Zealand, the children are lining up their kill.

Big brown rats with long tails, their stomachs caked in blood. Smaller rats, stiff from the refrigerator, tails in a tangle.

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