Two Fiordland islands \u2014 home to endangered species including the k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d \u2014 have been returned to deer-free status after a Department of Conservation operation.<\/p>\n
During annual checks of islands in Dusky Sound and Preservation Inlet, three deer were removed: one from Indian Island and two from Anchor Island.<\/p>\n
These checks also included surrounding islets.<\/p>\n
Anchor Island\u2019s lush forests support rare species, including the critically endangered k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d and k\u0101k\u0101riki karaka.<\/p>\n
It achieved a deer-free status in 2007.<\/p>\n
“If left unchecked, even a few deer can quickly rebuild a population \u2014 potentially undoing decades of conservation gains,” Doc project leader biodiversity Monty Williams said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“Acting now prevents a far bigger and costlier problem later.<\/p>\n
“This investment secures the islands\u2019 long-term ecological health and ensures Fiordland\u2019s unique biodiversity continues to thrive.”<\/p>\n
Doc contractors used a combination of aerial hunting with thermal technology and ground hunting to locate and remove the animals on the islands, which are accessible only by boat or helicopter.<\/p>\n
“We prioritise keeping areas such as Coal Island, Chalky Island, Anchor Island, Indian Island, Secretary Island and the Cleddau Valley catchment near Milford Sound wild deer-free as part of our wild animal management within Fiordland National Park,” Mr Williams said.<\/p>\n
“New Zealand\u2019s island sanctuaries are internationally recognised as models for species recovery and ecosystem protection.<\/p>\n
“Maintaining a wild deer-free status doesn\u2019t just safeguard wildlife \u2014 it demonstrates how targeted, science-led action can contribute to biodiversity protection worldwide.” \u2014 Allied Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Fiordland islands \u2014 home to endangered species including the k\u0101k\u0101p\u014d \u2014 have been returned to deer-free status…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-244128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}