New Zealand

New Zealand's birds evolved without land predators for millions of years. Then humans arrived with rats, stoats, and ferrets. Twenty percent of the country's bird species have gone extinct since. Re:wild and partners are working to bring them back.

New Zealand's wildlife tells one of evolution's most remarkable stories.

Isolated from large mammalian predators for millions of years, the islands' birds evolved without the need to fly, nesting on the ground and filling ecological roles usually occupied by mammals. The Kākāpō, the world's largest parrot, cannot fly and booms across valleys to attract a mate. The South Island Takahē was once thought extinct. The Kakī, or Black Stilt, is one of the world's rarest wading birds.

These species survived millions of years of evolution. What they could not survive was the arrival of humans. Polynesian settlers brought rats. European settlers brought more rats, stoats, ferrets, and weasels. Twenty percent of New Zealand's bird species have gone extinct in historical times, and the same introduced predators continue to threaten what remains.

New Zealand is pioneering a rewilding model the rest of the world is paying attention to.

More than 30 years of dedicated conservation work have produced recoveries that once seemed impossible. The approach being developed here, removing invasive predators and restoring native species at landscape scale, is being studied and replicated by programs around the world.

Recovery is happening.

The Kākāpō is Critically Endangered and the world's largest parrot. The Kakī is one of the world's rarest wading birds. Both are found only in New Zealand.

Re:wild works with the New Zealand Department of Conservation on conservation breeding and reintroduction programs for both species, helping restore them toward healthy, self-sustaining populations. Both recoveries depend on sustained predator control and the careful management of every individual animal. Both are moving in the right direction.

Conservation at scale

Re:wild is a partner in Te Manahuna Aoraki, a landscape-scale conservation project in South Island's upper Mackenzie Basin and Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park.

At over 750,000 acres, it uses natural barriers including mountain peaks, ridgelines, and waterways to exclude invasive species and restore a vast braided river ecosystem. It is conservation at a scale that matches the ambition the problem demands.