{"id":580358,"date":"2026-08-26T00:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T00:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/580358\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T00:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T00:24:11","slug":"pigs-out-people-in-feral-animals-ripping-up-native-bush-in-auckland-ranges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/580358\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Pigs out, people in’ – feral animals ripping up native bush in Auckland ranges"},"content":{"rendered":"

An explosion in feral pig numbers is tearing up native bush in the Wait\u0101kere Ranges and has led to the animals reaching a coastal seabird colony, an Auckland councillor warns.<\/p>\n

Ken Turner said the pig population had “exploded” over the past two years, with the animals now spotted on the Cornwallis Peninsula near a petrel colony.<\/p>\n

He pointed the finger at his own council for losing focus on the issue.<\/p>\n

“Lack of pest control, lack of council putting their budget in the right places for contractors,” the Wait\u0101kere ward councillor told Breakfast.<\/p>\n

He said pigs had lived in the ranges since “Captain Cook dropped some off”, but private and recreational hunters had long kept them in check. <\/p>\n

Auckland Council says its control efforts are working, with hunting already making a significant dent in the population.<\/p>\n

\"Waitākere<\/p>\n

Wait\u0101kere ward councillor Ken Turner. (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n

Turner agreed the culling was delivering results, saying contractors had killed more than 100 pigs in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

“But those numbers alone show you how bad the problem was.”<\/p>\n

He said it was frustrating to see parks closed to the public over kauri dieback while pigs ran free through the same bush.<\/p>\n

“It’s the hypocrisy of having closed our parks to trampers, and yet now it’s being obliterated by pigs,” he said. <\/p>\n

“They do far more damage than the trampers. Pigs out, people in is my new motto.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An explosion in feral pig numbers is tearing up native bush in the Wait\u0101kere Ranges and has led…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[50,51,111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-580358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animals","tag-auckland","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580358","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=580358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}