New Zealand vows to kill every rodent

New Zealand is a nation that takes its birds seriously, and it’s got very special ones. The logo of the air force is stamped with the famed kiwi — a chicken-sized puff of feathers that cannot fly.

But many of those birds and other native wildlife are under assault from species that showed up with settlers to the island nation 200 years ago. And on Monday, Prime Minister John Key announced that, generations after they came, the invaders would have to go.

New Zealand, he said, has adopted the “ambitious goal” of eradicating its soil of rats, possums, stoats and all other invasive mammals by 2050. The name of the plan: Predator Free New Zealand.

“This is the most ambitious conservation project attempted anywhere in the world, but we believe if we all work together as a country we can achieve it,” Mr. Key said, adding that invasive predators have surpassed poaching and deforestation as the biggest threat to New Zealand’s wildlife.

New Zealand already spends about $40 million a year on invasive species eradication programs, and it’s cleared more than onethird of its 220 islands of predators. But Mr. Key suggested Monday that the traps, airdropped poison and fencing already in use haven’t been cutting it. He said $2.3 billion had been devoted to the new plan, some of which would go to a new public-private partnership that would come up with new technologies to defeat the enemies.

The funding might not be enough. A government research arm previously said it would take $20 billion.