As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Wednesday, 14 November 2018

Kiwis to be reintroduced to New Zealand capital for first time in a century


Ancient, flightless, nocturnal birds have been absent from Wellington for more than a century
Eleanor Ainge Roy in Dunedin
Tue 13 Nov 2018 02.01 GMTLast modified on Tue 13 Nov 2018 02.55 GMT
Wellington could soon have kiwis nesting beside Parliament House thanks to an ambitious conservation project that aims to reintroduce the country’s iconic national bird to the capital city within the next decade.
There are 68,000 kiwi left in New Zealand but the number of birds are declining at a rate of 2% per year. A century ago, there were millions but attacks by dogs, cats, possums, stoats and rats have led to huge population decline.
The ancient, flightless, nocturnal birds have been absent from Wellington for more than a century, but after extensive predator-trapping by the council and as part of the country’s predator-free 2050 goal, conservationists believe Wellington is ripe for a reintroduction of the shy national bird, which few New Zealanders have ever seen in the wild.
“I would love to be woken by the sound of kiwi,” said Wellington mayor Justin Lester, who has been a strong proponent of predator control in the city, which sees school children set traps on school grounds, and mountain bikers check and set traps in rural areas.
Under the program, which is being coordinated by a consortium of conservation groups, 20,000 hectares of public and private land surrounding Wellington will be targeted with intensive trapping over the next three years to begin the reintroduction of kiwi.

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