A discovery that kea might be able to learn to detect toxic 1080 bait by how it looks could be a breakthrough in teaching them not to eat it.

The controversial poison is used widely to control pests on conservation land, but it also killed non-targeted animals and birds - including, sometimes, the endangered kea.

New research showed that an additive that made it "shiny", or that appealed to the parrot's ability to see ultraviolet colour, might be the tool needed to teach the curious alpine parrots to avoid the toxic pellets.
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Kea Conservation Trust patron Peter Hillary said the discovery was timely.

The deaths of six kea following a 1080 drop in Otago were the result of a "perfect storm", internal documents reveal.

​Environmentalists fear hundreds of birds may have been killed in a 1080 drop in Otago but Department of Conservation (DOC) staff say no such conclusion can be made.

On Monday DOC announced six of 12 monitored kea in the Matukituki Valley, near Wānaka, died following an aerial 1080 predator control operation.

Orange-fronted parakeets will still get protection but some mohua populations miss out as DoC reduces the area of forest being covered by 1080 poison. David Williams reports.
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Predator-killing aerial 1080 poison drops planned across the country will be shrink by 100,000 hectares, and cost millions of dollars more, because of the severity of this year's mega mast.

People feeding kea in South Island high Country car parks have made the intelligent and curious alpine parrots more likely to nibble things they shouldn't - including a pest control poison.

Possum numbers in the West Coast's Perth River Valley area have potentially reduced from roughly 10,000 to just 30 after a new technique was used in a 1080 operation.
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Zero Invasive Predators (ZIP) is in charge of the operation in the Perth River Valley area in South Westland. The operation is halfway through and has involved the deployment of 4 kilograms of 1080 per hectare so far.

As the Department of Conservation gears up for another large pest-control operation Samantha Gee finds out if the last one worked and what the future of predator control looks like.
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A small yellow insect-eating bird with a loud melodious call is what first drew Graeme Elliott into the world of New Zealand's native birds.

Elliott, a self-confessed "nerdy little birdy kid" was raised in Christchurch and spent family holidays in Nelson where he remembers climbing Mt Arthur to look across the huge expanse of Kahurangi National Park, and wonder what was out there.

The Westport News

Of the 22 kea monitored during aerial 1080 operations in Kahurangi National Park last year, two have been killed by the poison, says Department of Conservation (DOC) Westport conservation services manager Bob Dickson.

The two kea were found dead in the Oparara Basin (western Kahurangi) following the 1080 aerial drop that occurred last November.

Otago Daily Times

All 17 radio-tagged kea in the Mt Arthur region of Kahurangi National Park have survived the 1080 Battle for our Birds operation.

The fate of a further five kea being monitored in the park's Oparara block will not be known until rain washes the last of the poison bait away.