An ambitious, complex, and expensive programme aims make three of our largest islands predator free.
The Department of Conservation estimates it needs $137 million to restore eco systems on Maukahuka/Auckland Island, Rakiura/Stewart Island, and the Chatham Islands. It's recently joined with an international grouping of conservation organisations and philanthropists which fund such projects.
The subantarctic Auckland Island is a particular challenge. The World Heritage Site is 465 km south of Bluff — with feral pigs and rats roaming where chest-high flowering megaherbs once flourished. Auckland Island is home to more than 500 native plants and animals, including over 100 found nowhere else in the world, including Gibson's albatross, New Zealand sea lions and hoiho. DOC senior ranger and Auckland Island project manager Stephen Horn joins Kathryn.
A White-Capped Albatross on Maukahuka/ Auckland Island. Photo: Supplied/ Jake Osborne
