http://www.woodvalecooma.com.au/

Woodvale at Cooma, 128 Church Road, Cooma (2026)

15/03/2026

20/02/2026

Bringing kākāpō home to Rakiura Stewart Island? It's looking possible 🌳🪶

The Department of Conservation's latest predator control results from Rakiura Stewart Island are remarkable. Predators have been driving the tiny population of critically endangered pukunui Southern New Zealand dotterel to the edge of extinction.

An aerial 1080 operation targeting those predators has been so successful that cameras haven't detected a single feral cat since the end of August.

In fact, the combined reduction of predators and browsing pests is giving a forest understorey on the edge of collapse a chance to come back.

Rakiura was once a stronghold for kākāpō where they were rediscovered by the NZ Wildlife Service in 1977. Now, after some successful breeding seasons, kākāpō need more habitat beyond their small predator-free islands.

Forest & Bird CE Nicola Toki says: "Kākāpō were once one of Aotearoa’s most common species of bird, with early European explorers for example writing about being able to shake a tree and have them ‘fall down like apples’. Introduced mammalian predators such as rats and stoats and habitat loss meant this world-famous bird almost became extinct. Thanks to the incredible work of the Kākāpō Recovery Programme, these birds have been carefully brought back from the brink of extinction. The conservation challenge for kākāpō now is that they’re running out of suitable real estate.”

“There are so many New Zealanders who would love to hear a resonant kākāpō booming across a wild Rakiura beach." These results give real hope that we could one day bring them home.

The predator and pest control is helping the wider ecosystem recover – creating safer habitat for tīeke saddleback, mohua yellowhead, and other species to return to Rakiura.

Forest & Bird has been speaking up for kākāpō since the 1960s, and our Southland branch and volunteers continue boots-on-the-ground conservation work across the south – from protecting hoiho yellow-eyed penguin to pekapeka-tou-roa long-tailed bat.

A Predator Free Rakiura is possible. Let's make it happen 💚

📸: Jake Osborne