WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Kiwis beware.The fluffy, flightless bird which is New Zealand’s national symbol could be hunted to extinction in the wild within 15 years by predators introduced by settlers unless the government acts urgently, conservationists warned Wednesday.
The Royal Forest and Bird Society called on the government to bankroll an all-out attack on predators like stoats, wild cats and ferrets introduced from Europe which prey on the nocturnal, fluffy-feathered birds.
“Eighty years ago there were five million kiwi in New Zealand. Today there are 50,000-60,000,” said the society’s conservation manager Eric Pyle.
“Over 95 percent of kiwi chicks outside heavily managed (conservation) areas are killed after hatching, or in their first year” by the predators introduced by human settlement, he said.
While safe havens would keep the species from extinction, in less than five years it would be too late to save most of the kiwis remaining in wilderness areas.
Pyle said a concerted campaign to wipe out the kiwi’s predators—by poisoning and trapping—could “pull it (the Kiwi) back. It just requires a (funding) commitment from government, a commitment from communities and from productive sectors like farming and forestry.”
“We need everybody to pick up the challenge,” he said.
Another 15 million New Zealand dollars ($7.4 million) is needed on top of the government’s 10 million New Zealand dollars ($4.9 million) over the next five years for kiwi conservation, Pyle said.
Paul Jansen, kiwi coordinator with the government’s Conservation Department agreed that kiwi populations in the wild “are declining rapidly and will disappear.”
He said five large sanctuaries are already protecting kiwis in various parts of New Zealand.
Conservation Minister Sandra Lee said until stoats and other predators are controlled, kiwis and other bird species will continue to decline.
“New Zealand is cursed with some of the worst pest introductions known in the history of ecology,” she said.
But she said the preservation areas have helped.
