WELLINGTON, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Scientists have found that weasels pose a greater threat to native wildlife in New Zealand than their larger stoat cousins.

Researchers analyzed the diets of eight weasels and 20 stoats caught in traps around New Zealand South Island's Routeburn Track. They found that weasels were one level higher up the food chain than stoats, with greater consumption of vulnerable groups of species like lizards and small birds.

"Since stoat traps don't work on the majority of weasels, it's possible that some stoat trapping programs could end up having a negative effect on threatened lizards," said Department of Conservation ranger Jamie McAulay, who works to protect threatened wildlife populations from invasive species such as stoats, weasels and rats.

Like stoats, weasels were also released to New Zealand in the 1800s in a failed experiment to control rabbits. Thousands of the critters were set free all around the country. However, they largely ignored the rabbits and set-to on native wildlife instead, said Jamie McAulay, author of the study published on Wednesday in the New Zealand Journal of Ecology.

Trapping grids designed to target stoats will catch just a small proportion of a population of weasels, said McAulay.

"The removal of their aggressive, bigger cousins through trapping could lead to scenarios that make conditions better for weasels," he said, adding conservationists must pay closer attention to the recovery of native species following predator control efforts, rather than simply counting the number of predators killed.

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