Recovery of wildlife and restoration of habitats New Zealand

Abstract

Although New Zealand's native fauna shares a Gondwana origin with that of Australia, there are major differences between our countries. The near-absence of land mammals and the restricted biodiversity and habitat range of New Zealand, contrast with the species-rich fauna and habitat variety of Australia. Both countries share an unenviable extinction record, particularly birds in New Zealand and mammals in Australia. Introduced mammals, often interacting with habitat destruction, have frequently been responsible for these losses in New Zealand. In some places, entire vertebrate foraging guilds have disappeared. On the mainland, control of introduced mammals has had limited success but a steadily increasing number of islands have been cleared of alien mammals. This has created new opportunities for translocating threatened species of native vertebrates and invertebrates to pest-free islands. It has also created options for substituting an ecologically similar species for one that is extinct, thus potentially achieving a more comprehensive restoration. Recent progress with island restoration has stimulated a "mainland island" strategy involving simultaneous intensive control of several pest mammals within a limited area that is then used to re-establish viable populations of threatened species. Examples are given to illustrate these conservation actions.