Kiwi sanctuary hurt by visitor downturn
Visitors to Queenstown’s Kiwi sanctuary have dried up, forcing a desperate plea from its owners for help.
Kiwi Birdlife Park owner and director Paul Wilson said the park usually attracted ‘‘thousands’’ of visitors every year, which they needed to survive.
‘‘We’re not a governmentfunded facility and are completely reliant on visitors and souvenir sales to fund our conservation efforts, while providing the highest level of care for our endangered native wildlife.’’
The park, as a member of the Zoo and Aquarium association of Australasia, had lobbied the Government to help all accredited wildlife parks with their operational wildlife costs, he said.
They should hear about the funding in a few weeks, he said.
In the meantime, the park needed New Zealand’s help to ‘‘keep the wolf from the door’’, and was launching a ‘‘Koha for kiwi’’ programme.
‘‘International visitor numbers have dried up. We have achieved a lot in our 34 years and faced many challenges, but nothing like this.
‘‘We recognise that we need to raise awareness of who we are and what we do with New Zealanders, who’re being encouraged to explore their own backyard."
Wilson said he was ‘‘painfully aware’’ tourist numbers would be ‘‘very, very low’’ in coming months.
A new $1 million kiwi house was built earlier in the year, but partially because of the Covid-19 situation, the park was struggling to get the revenue it needed to pay for a significant part of the building cost.
’’We visited every kiwi house in the country to make sure we built the best . . .’’
The park treasure’’.
‘‘It holds and displays over 23 species of native wildlife as part of nationally-managed programmes, takes part in a number of breed-forrelease programmes, and has planted over 18,000 native plants providing essential food and shelter to wild native birds.’’
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