Category: Battle For Our Birds

In a remote South Island valley, birdsong returns

8/5/2019

Twenty-one years of intensive pest control in the Landsborough Valley is paying off. David Williams reports.

Colin O’Donnell ambles towards the edge of silver beech forest near the Landsborough River, drawn by the high-pitched, repetitive call of a mohua. It’s a call the Department of Conservation ecologist has been following for more than 30 years.

DoC: Forest 'mega-mast' may spell local extinctions

14/4/2019

Conservation managers are bracing for the biggest seeding event in New Zealand's forests for more than 40 years. Forest seeding, or masting, provides a bonanza of food for native species but also fuels rodent and stoat plagues. The Department of Conservation (DoC) is now planning its biggest ever predator control programme, at a cost of $38 million. It will target rats, stoats and possums over about one million hectares or 12 per cent of conservation land. Priority sites include Kahurangi, Abel Tasman, Arthur's Pass, Westland, Mt Aspiring and Fiordland national parks, the Catlins and Whirinaki. More than 66,000ha will be covered with trapping – and the rest with aerial 1080 poison drops. Science reporter Jamie Morton spoke to DoC principal science advisor Dr Graeme Elliott about the challenge.

Science of a 'mega mast' & planning wide-scale predator control

4/4/2019

A widespread ‘mega-mast’ mass seeding event is likely to lead to a large plague of rats and stoats in New Zealand southern beech forests.

In response, the Department of Conservation (DOC) is aiming to control predators over an unprecedented one million hectares of conservation land, to protect vulnerable native species such as kaka, whio, mohua and orange-fronted parakeets.

Plan to feed tahr to kea to protect them from 1080 drop

28/3/2019

Three hundred tahr are to be culled and fed to kea in an attempt to keep the endangered native parrots away from an aerial 1080 poison drop in the hills behind Whataroa.

Zero Invasive Predators (Zip) was last month granted permission from the Department of Conservation for intensive predator control in an attempt to eradicate possums and, potentially, rats, from about 12,000ha of rugged backcountry at the Perth River.

SPCA changes stance on 1080: 'Not anti-pest control' but must be humane

12/2/2019

The SPCA has changed its stance on the use of 1080, only a month after it called for a ban on the pest-control poison.

Last month, the charity said it was "deeply concerned" over the use of 1080, and the use of poisons to kill animals due to the level of suffering they caused.

Soaring kōkako numbers partly attributed to use of 1080 to kill pests

24/1/2019

It all started in 1994, with Rod and Rachel.

Now, almost 25 years later, the two kōkako share their Hunua Ranges home with 105 other breeding pairs.

Aerial 1080 boosts native bird numbers - report

21/12/2018

New Zealand's native birds are reaping the benefits of aerial 1080 operations.

$30.5 million hit planned for ‘mega mast’

7/12/2018

When I last visited a forest frequented by orange-fronted parakeet/kākāriki karaka, there was quiet optimism.

DoC confirms dead birds left outside Parliament had no 1080 in their systems

12/10/2018

DoC has confirmed to Newshub there was no 1080 poison in the dead birds left by protesters on the steps of Parliament several weeks ago.

1080 drop for Hauraki area planned

5/10/2017

Aerial predator control is under way for the southern boundary of the Hauraki District.

An area of 6300ha of public conservation land in the Otahu catchment near Whiritoa will have a 1080 operation.

Starting this month, the aerial pest control is part of the government's nationwide 'Battle for our Birds' 1080 operation.

Otahu is largely forested, and drained by the Otahu River and tributaries to the Otahu estuary, which covers about 110ha providing significant vegetation and wildlife habitat.