Via the Red Route

Since its opening in 1995, Karori Wildlife Sanctuary – recently renamed Zealandia – has assisted in halting the continued demise of many native bird species, releasing 15 endangered species back into the wild, including one of the world’s rarest ducks, the brown teal. Covering only one square mile, protected by a unique 8.6km predator-proof fence and comprising a river, two dams and assorted woodland, in 1995 Karori contained only 12 different species of native birds. Numbers were low and the commonest were introduced species such as blackbirds, sparrows, thrushes, chaffinches and starlings. Now there are more than 30 bird and reptile species. Financial Times reporter Sandy Gall writes: “The success of the project was summed up by a young volunteer, who said the dawn chorus was now so loud that local residents were ringing the radio station to complain.”