​A Taranaki farming couple are seeing the benefits of predator control after a family of whio, or native blue ducks, took up residence on their land.

Matt and Vanessa Vujcich farm a 100 hectare dry stock farm near Inglewood on the Egmont National Park boundary, which has been the subject wide scale pest management through aerial 1080 and trapping.

There is more good news about the number of whio or blue ducks living in Fiordland, after a possible record number were found on another tributary of the Dart River.

Department of conservation contractor Paul Van Klink and his conservation dog Hoki conducted a survey of whio on the Routeburn a week ago.

An aerial 1080 operation in Egmont National Park took a big toll on rat and possum numbers, results from monitoring stations shown.
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But the June operation, carried out by the Department of Conservation, also caused the death of one of the 20 rare whio which are monitored in the National Park.