There are only around 40 fairy terns left and a handful of breeding pairs. Photo: DOC
Auckland Zoo is looking forward to the hatching of baby fairy terns.
There are only around 40 individual birds left and a handful of breeding pairs.
Head of animal care and conservation Richard Gibson said the zoo worked with the Department of Conservation to bring in eggs from the wild, where they are incubated and hand-reared.
"Eggs from the wild coming to the zoo where we incubate them and hand-rear them - that part of the project is just kicking off now. We have eggs incubating right now. So we'd anticipate eggs hatching and hand-rearing being carried out through the Christmas and New Year period, so that's all very exciting."
Tara iti are probably New Zealand's most endangered indigenous bird, and its rarest breeding bird.
The zoo however needed visitors to plug its funding gap.
Council agency Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, which ran the zoo, had its funding cut by $17.5 million in 2023.
Zoo head of brand experience and development Jooles Clements said operationally it cost about $19 million a year to run.
"And that's running it pretty lean. We make savings everywhere we possibly can.
"With the well-publicised circumstances Auckland Council finds itself in, our funding envelope is about $5.7 million - less than a third of our operational costs. The rest we generate through people's support."
Clements said a visit, buying something in its cafe or shop or donating to its conservation work would help the zoo reach its targets.
