Capital Kiwi project launches
A massive effort to bring kiwi back to Wellington has begun with the first trap being set in the ground at Makara.
The plan is being welcomed by 90-year-old Makara resident Ted Smith, who hit the first trap’s stake into the ground at Terawhiti Station, on the capital’s south coast, yesterday.
Smith, who was born in Karori, said it could be done and he wanted pests gone.
‘‘All the predators we have, have been introduced to this country, and I think we should now ask them to leave.’’
Smith had explored Makara for about 80 years and wanted to see kiwi in his backyard.
‘‘It’s going to require a lot of work and effort from a lot of people, and it’s going to take time, but it can be done.’’
Smith, with other landowners and members of the trapping community, gathered at the blustery farm site to see the first trap prepared – a self-resetting Goodnature A24 trap.
It is the first of 4400 traps to be set across 23,000 hectares in Wellington by next winter.
Capital Kiwi has three years to eradicate mustelids (stoats, weasels and ferrets), and then the Department of Conservation could approve the release of kiwi.
Speaking at the launch, project founder Paul Ward said mustelids were ‘‘the number one threat to our young kiwis’ housing crisis’’.
Ward said New Zealanders called themselves, their money, and some sports teams ‘‘Kiwis’’.
‘‘Like the birds we’re feisty, shy, tough, and just a little bit weird.’’
But few had seen the kiwi themselves, and it wasn’t right, he said. More tourists than New Zealanders had seen kiwi and if Kiwis had seen their namesake, it was probably in a zoo.